FAIRFIELD --

The 70-year-old owner of a Fairfield market whom neighbors would see reading the Bible in his store died after being attacked and pepper-sprayed during a robbery, police said.

Ho Kim was working at the Travis Dairy at 140 East Travis Blvd. when he was confronted by three young men at about 7:50 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

The men attacked him and stole the cash register, a video recorder and other items before leaving in a brown or tan late-model Honda or similar vehicle, said police Lt. Greg Hurlbut. The robbers pepper-sprayed Kim, police said.

Investigators said the assailants were in their late teens, but they did not have complete descriptions.

Kim, a Fairfield resident, was able to call police. He was taken to NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield, where he died.

An autopsy by the Solano County coroner determined that Kim died of an irregular heartbeat "due to emotional distress caused by an assault," said sheriff's Lt. Gary Faulkner.

Kim was the longtime owner of the store, said Ernest Shortridge, 47, who lives nearby. He and others affectionally called him "Papa." Well-wishers wrote condolences Wednesday on a poster outside the store.

"He was a nice old man. He was a very loving soul," Shortridge said. At times, he said, he would peer inside the store and see Kim "reading scripture out of his Bible."

Kim leaves behind his wife and their college-age son, he said.

Shortridge's wife, Josette Phillips, 47, who stopped by the store each morning, said the assailants "must have been on drugs or they must have been crazy to attack an old man."

She said Kim didn't keep much cash on hand.