Woodbury Gas Station Shooting Turns Fatal

Authorities confirmed Monday morning that the victim in a Sunday night shooting at a Woodbury gas station has died from his injuries.

Surinder Singh, 40, of Woodbury, was pronounced dead at Inspira Medical Center at 9:37 p.m. Sunday, a little more than half an hour after the incident was reported to police, according to a statement from the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office.

He is survived by his wife, two children, and other family members, the statement read.

At the scene of the shooting Sunday night, workers and patrons at the Colonial Diner next door to the gas station where Singh was shot remembered him as a kind-hearted, friendly presence in their lives.

Angel Vega, whose cousin works at the diner, said Singh was a close family friend who would occasionally give them free gas; who had recently brought his wife into the country, and who was celebrating the birth of a child.

"I went there two weeks ago," Vega said. "He was talking about how he's all right, how he's doing great, and now he's gone.

"It really hurts."

Waiter Alfred Jackson of Clayton, said he saw Singh lying in the street and thought he had been hit by a car.

"I wouldn't ever think that something like that would happen in this area," Jackson said. "Nobody deserves that." 

At least anecdotally, gas station robberies in South Jersey seem to be on the rise. In December 2012, a 44-year-old Blackwood man and his juvenile accomplice were charged in a string of incidents in Camden and Gloucester counties.

In the months prior, gas station robbers struck in Brooklawn, Collingswood and Maple Shade, as well as in West Deptford, where the Lukoil gas station on Crown Point Road and Red Bank Avenue was robbed by suspects who reportedly fled in a silver Dodge Stratus.

Anyone with information about Sunday's incident is asked to contact Det. Greg Malesich at the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office (856) 384-5626 or Det. Tom Ryan of the Woodbury Police Department at (856) 845-0065.