SENSELESS SLAYING CLERK BEATEN TO DEATH; PAROLEE HELD.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

CHATSWORTH -- A convenience-store clerk was fatally bludgeoned with a baseball bat early Friday by a parolee who had served time in prison for nearly killing another clerk more than a dozen years ago, authorities said.

Rohan Rameukwella, 41, was found dead on the floor of the Arco AM/PM minimart at Devonshire Street and Mason Avenue after the suspect in his killing, Frank Erik Kaatz, 32, led Los Angeles police officers to his body, authorities said.

``It's very unfortunate that the victim had to be in the path of this suspect,'' said Officer Jason Lee, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman.

A native of Sri Lanka, Rameukwella had worked the night shift at the AM/PM for about five years. Police said they believe he was targeted at random.

And while Rameukwella had no family in the United States, to regulars of the minimart and people working in nearby shops, he was one of their own.

``All I know is that he's gone, and it won't be the same in the morning,'' said Peter Laspina, owner of the nearby Baskin Robbins. ``This is like family here. We're all together.''

Mornings for Laspina start at 3 a.m., when he opens up shop but first swings into the convenience store to buy some doughnuts. That's how his friendship with Rameukwella began.

The two often joked about work and how Rameukwella was always fretting over the store, cleaning shelves and the parking lot during the middle of the night, Laspina said.

Rameukwella often left the door to the store wide open, while other night-shift clerks kept it locked with a bar, he said. Laspina interpreted the gesture as an extension of the Sri Lankan man's warmth and hospitality.

Sitting in a doughnut shop across the parking lot, Ernie Tombros, 76, shook his head as he looked at the yellow police tape wrapped around the perimeter of the convenience store.

Buying lottery tickets every night at the minimart, Tombros knew Rameukwella for years. As they waited in the store for the lottery results, Tombros and Rameukwella often talked about what they'd do if they hit the jackpot.

``He said he'd get out of the store,'' Tombros said. ``He wouldn't work anymore.''

Police believe the convenience store was empty of customers when the killer entered about 2 a.m.

About 15 minutes before that, Kaatz was smashing furniture with a baseball bat in his home, relatives told police when they call 911 about 1:45 a.m. He had left before officers arrived, but relatives told officers he had said he wanted to commit ``suicide by cop.''

Officers searched the area and located Kaatz, of Chatsworth, on the roof of Denny's Restaurant in the 20000 block of Devonshire. He directed police to the bat and to Rameukwella's body in the store, about 150 yards away.

Kaatz is being held without bail because of his parole status. He critically wounded a clerk during an attempted robbery of a West Valley 7-Eleven, and was convicted in 1994 of attempted murder.

He was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison, but was released after serving just seven years. A drug conviction in April 2001 sent him back to prison for two more years.

After that, he ended up back in prison three times for undisclosed parole violations, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records. Prison officials would not say what those violations were.

Kaatz was most recently paroled in July. Prison officials could not explain why someone with an attempted-murder conviction and multiple parole violations was not still behind bars.

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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