A 26-year old Home Depot employee was shot and killed on the job in Pleasanton Tuesday afternoon while trying to thwart a shoplifter, in a story that gets more heartbreaking when we learn that the shooter had a getaway car with a young child inside.  

It was a deadly Tuesday afternoon at the Home Depot at the Pleasanton Square Shopping Center on Johnson Drive, as SFGate reports that an employee of the store was shot and killed while confronting a shoplifter. The incident took the life of 26-year old employee Blake Mohs, and there’s another very sad angle in that the shooter fled to a getaway car that had a child inside. Pleasanton police say the shooting occurred around 2:15 p.m.

“During the investigation, detectives determined Mohs confronted a female shoplifter who resisted and shot him,” the Pleasanton Police Department says in a Facebook post. “The suspect, Benicia Knapps (32), ran to a getaway car driven by a male suspect, David Guillory (31). Knapps's child was also inside the vehicle. After they fled the scene, a handgun was recovered in a nearby intersection. Around 2:30 p.m., the two suspects were detained by Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies, and the child was released to relatives.”

In a statement to KGO, the Home Depot store said, "We're heartbroken over this senseless tragedy. Blake was our associate and friend, and our hearts go out to his family and everyone who knew and loved him."

KTVU has some additional background on the victim, noting that Mohs worked in the loss prevention department. One co-worker told the station Mohs was a "great guy who was just trying to do his job for the store." The station also adds that “Family friend Michael Pagendarm told KTVU on Wednesday that Blake was engaged to be married this summer and was a Boy Scout or Eagle Scout volunteer.”

One’s thoughts are with Mohs’s family and friends, but of course also with that child and what they went through in the getaway car. As noted above, the child is now in the care of relatives. According to the Bay Area News Group, “Alameda County jail records showed Guillory in custody Wednesday on suspicion of child abuse, as well as evading and obstructing police.” The news group adds that Knapps has not year appeared in jail records, though this may be a lag in recording, or an error with the Inmate Locator tool.

Related: Video: Vigilante In Alameda Takes Down Walgreens Shoplifter, Claims 'Citizen's Arrest' [SFist]

Image: Jesse V. via Yelp