Store worker shot to death in Bronx grocery store

FORDHAM HEIGHTS (WABC) -- Police are hunting for the killer who shot a bodega worker on the job in the Bronx. Police say the 46-year-old was shot once in the chest, and once in the torso.

The shots were fired inside a grocery store on 23-45 Jerome Avenue in the Fordham Heights section just before 10:30 on Sunday morning.

By all accounts, the clerk was a hardworking man trying to earn a living, his friends say, with a wife and three children back in the Dominican Republic.

"He was a nice man. He was never looking for problems with anybody," said Myra Rodriguez, a customer.

Every day, Rodriguez would see the man when she came into the Bronx bodega where he worked.

Now she and others huddle around a small wooden memorial made in his honor, adorned with candles and flowers by Fernando Pere and other friends.

"He was a good guy, good guy, only working, that's it. He's got no problems with nobody," Pere said.

What doesn't make sense to them is why the worker, who police have not yet identified, was apparently targeted by a gunman.

Police say three people were arguing with the clerk Sunday morning and one of them returned and shot and killed him. Sandra Laureano was working two doors away.

"When I got here to work, I heard the shots and saw all the people running. We panicked and we closed the salon. We were scared because we heard the shots, then they told us a guy had been killed," Laureano said.

Police have released the pictures of three men they want to question in connection with the case, and they also released video of a car leaving the scene.

"I find it hard because he wasn't that type of person. He was very quiet. He was to himself. Just working and saying 'hi' to everybody, 'good morning,'" Rodriguez said.

"I was really sad about it. He was a nice calm guy. I used to buy my coffee there all the time," Laureano said.

The cold blooded murder is also of great concern to Sidney Flores a community activist with Bronx Quality of Life Community Safety who was putting up reward posters.

"The shootings, left and right all over the city, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, the police officer that got shot the other day, these guys don't care anymore," Flores said.

No arrests have been made. Police say they are looking for a Hispanic man in his 20s.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).