Shopkeeper's vicious young killers may be snared by their DNA

DNA from the killers of a "wonderful" and "hard-working'' shopkeeper may help find them, police said yesterday.

Gurmail Singh, 63, died following a vicious robbery at Cowcliffe Convenience Store, Huddersfield, at the weekend and yesterday detectives appealed for help in catching his killers.

Det Supt David Pervin said Mr Singh, a married, father-of-three, had celebrated his 63rd birthday on Friday night with his family The following night he was preparing to lock up when he was violently attacked by two youths while two others stood guard outside.

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Mr Pervin said: "It is my belief that this was a robbery that was being committed by these youths and that Mr Singh has put up some resistance against them and that because of that they have injured him and they have murdered him.

"I believe they got away with very little. They dropped one or two packets of cigarettes, some coin bags and some chewing gum.

"This is a murder they've committed, an awful murder and they've got away with next to nothing." He said he hoped a forensic examination of articles at the shop and witnesses who tackled the youths would yield dividends after being '"fast tracked'' to science laboratories for DNA tests.

Mr Pervin described how a group of people standing outside the pub opposite "very bravely" tackled two youths who ran from the back of Mr Singh's shop.

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Mr Pervin said witnesses were alerted to the robbery shortly before, at about 8.30pm, when two suspicious youths left the store. One witness from the pub across the road walked over to the shop and saw two other young men rifling through cigarettes and bottles.

The witness pulled the door shut to keep them in and was showered with glass as the pair attacked the door for a number of minutes with a hammer and a bottle in a desperate attempt to get out.

Mr Pervin said the two suspects were in a "blind panic'' before they eventually managed to find a way out of the back.

He said that after the men got away the witnesses found Mr Singh at the back of the shop on the floor. He was unconscious and had very serious head injuries.

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