Palm Beach County’s first homicide victim of 2012 was a former bass fishing champion and a longtime merchant in Belle Glade.

Jimmy McMillan was shot to death early Monday in an attempted robbery at his business, the Alabama Georgia Grocery Store at 748 Martin Luther King Blvd.

Police said a man wearing a mask committed the holdup about 6:30 a.m.

Soon afterward, Randy Rhames, who works with McMillan, found his boss on the ground with a gunshot wound, according to WPTV-NBC 5 in West Palm Beach.

McMillian, 49, died at Delray Medical Center, to which he had been airlifted, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The gunman escaped.

The McMillan family is well known in the Glades. McMillan was a former champion bass fisherman in FLW tournament competition, one of the premier prizes in competitive bass fishing. He took Angler of the Year honors in the series’ Eastern Division in 2008 and won $120,000 in one event on Lake Okeechobee in 2009 with a four-day weight of 74 pounds, 4 ounces.

McMillan’s son, Brandon, is the current champion.

Many in the community have gathered around the longtime grocery store, which has been open for more than 50 years.

Evelina Clarke, who has known McMillan for most of her life, was seen on the corner in front of the store crying and holding a sign saying, “Stop the Violence. Stop the Killing.”

Clarke said she could not believe someone would do this to someone the community loved.

The McMillan family declined to comment.

Investigators asked anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 800-458-8477.