Killers May Have Seen a Routine : Reseda: Couple ran the Army-Navy surplus store like clockwork. Woman is slain.

For most days during the past 20 years, Bernard and Lea Graf opened and closed the Army-Navy store they owned in Reseda like clockwork. It may have been those precisely regular habits, police said Friday, that led to their undoing.

After they had closed their shop--Army-Navy Surplus Headquarters--Thursday about 7 p.m., as they did every weekday evening, he turned off the lights and she set the alarm. But this time, as they walked out the back door, they were met by two men--one with a gun--who pushed Lea Graf back inside and opened fire, killing the 61-year-old woman and wounding her husband, authorities said.

Bernard Graf, also 61, shot back seven times with the .25-caliber pistol he carries for protection, but the men escaped, authorities said.

On Friday, Los Angeles police detectives continued searching for clues that could lead to the killers and alerted hospitals throughout Southern California to be on the alert for gunshot victims in case one of the men was hit--as Bernard Graf suspects.

So far, detectives admit that they have little to go on.

“We’re going to need some help on this one,” said Detective Joel Price, who is investigating the case and who has shopped at the surplus store over the past 15 years. “There’s no indication (the suspected robbers) asked for money, but I can’t think of any other reason for this to happen.

“Typically, there’s a motive for murder . . . these are just nice people who own a store.”

Meanwhile, Graf was at his shop Friday, but instead of standing at the cash register quietly ringing up sales, he sat with his daughter and son-in-law in a back room at the store and declined requests for an interview.

“He feels like you can’t let something like this stop everything . . . that you can’t run and hide,” explained his son-in-law, Bill Collins, who acted as the family spokesman. “The store was their life.”

The couple, married for 34 years, moved to Los Angeles from Israel in 1960. After dabbling in other business ventures, they set up the Reseda Boulevard store that became an institution for people looking for a good price on everything from Army boots and camouflage parkas to flannel shirts and camping equipment.

Although Collins said the couple had toyed with the idea of selling the shop during the past two years because of the recession, neighbors said the Grafs were dedicated to the shop.

“They were very hard-working people who mostly kept to themselves,” said Judith Blankenburg, who owns a pet grooming shop a few doors down. “We would wave if we saw each other out back, but they tended mostly to business.”

The habits that they developed while closing the store however, might have allowed the robbers to take advantage of their pattern, Collins said.

“Every night they would go out the same way,” he said. “One would get the lights, the other would get the alarm. Someone must have watched them.”

Pausing, Collins added: “At one point, he had one of them by the neck, but when he turned on the lights and saw his wife on the floor, he let go and they ran away. He said it happened so fast, like 30 seconds. . . . I don’t know, they go out like clockwork every night.”