Los Angeles News

PALM DESERT (CBS) ― Less than 24 hours after a deadly shootout inside a crowded Toys "R" Us store, the business in Palm Desert opened Saturday with extra security on hand.

"They have guards all around, walking around the entrance and around
the outside of the store," said Melanie Morales, 21, who works at the adjacent Jiffy Lube, where many shoppers fled after gunfire erupted in the toy store.

"They're deputies, all in black, some with green vests," Morales said. "The parking lot isn't full. It doesn't look as crowded as yesterday."

Meanwhile, investigators are trying to figure out why the two men shot each other to death in the midst of a toy store packed with shoppers, including parents, children and infants.

Alejandro Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs, and Juan Meza, 28, of Cathedral City, were fatally shot around 11:30 a.m. Friday at the store near Fred Waring Drive and Highway 111, which was jammed with parents and children buying Christmas gifts, said Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities said they arrived about a minute later, but that both men were already dead.

Moreno and Meza apparently shot each other, as evidenced by two guns
recovered at the scene and eyewitness accounts.

"The guns were found in close proximity to the bodies," said sheriff's Investigator Matt Diaz.

He said no one has been arrested in connection with the shooting and no
suspects were being sought.

Witnesses said the men were each with women in the store who got into a fight that escalated into the fatal shootings, which sent terrified shoppers and their children scrambling for safety.

There was no official word of any relationship between the victims or
exactly what caused the shooting to erupt, but authorities said there may have already been bad blood between the two couples.

Joan Barrick of Desert Hot Springs said she was about 6 feet away from
the shooting when it occurred.

She said she was standing at the end of a long checkout line when she
heard two young Latinas shouting at each other.

One was a bleached blonde, Barrick said.

News outlets showed a bleached blonde being placed into a squad car while shouting at someone that she was going to kill the person.

"The blonde lady came over and started pummeling the other Hispanic
lady," Barrick said.
 
"That's when the guy took out the weapon," she said.

According to the witness, the man accompanying the blonde -- Meza --was the first to pull a gun, and then the man with the other woman --Moreno -- pulled out a gun as well.

The two men opened fire in an area between the checkout line and the
electronics section of the store, she said.

Barrick and her husband Scott were in the store to buy her daughter a
Barbie car but ended up leaving it at the store, unpaid for, as she and her
husband ran for their lives.

Barrick said she ran and ducked to avoid getting hurt.

"It wasn't my time to die," she said.

Scott Barrick said the blonde woman was punching the other woman in the face, and that the younger man, who was accompanying the woman being punched, partially pulled a weapon from his pants pocket.

Store employees tried to stop the fight, but then someone shouted that the man had a gun.

The older man then came around an aisle and pulled his own weapon and chased the younger man through part of the store, said Scott Barrick.

"He couldn't go very far," the husband said, because there were shoppers and carts in the way.

The men disappeared from his view around an aisle, and then he heard shots, he said.

The younger man by then had begun firing back and eventually stopped,
put his hand on a counter, then, "it's like his arm gave way and he just went down," Scott Barrick said.

Daniel Watson rushed to the scene when he received a frantic call from his wife, who was inside the store at the time of the shooting.

Sarah Pacia of Cathedral City says she was in the store with her two boys, ages 4 and 6, looking at coloring books when she heard a commotion in the next aisle. She thought it was people rushing to get a sale item. Then she heard three or four shots.

She said she froze, and store employees calmly escorted her out of the store.

Immediately after the shooting, about 20 people rushed into the World Gym across the street from Toys 'R' Us.

The store's parking lot was surrounded by yellow police tape.

Toys"R" Us issued a statement expressing its outrage "by the act of violence" and "the fact that anyone would compromise the safety and security of our customers and employees."

"We are working closely with local law enforcement officials to determine the specific details of what occurred," the statement said. "Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday."

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)