Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old in the Bronx, and surveillance video shows that it may have stemmed from a botched robbery.
Officials say Romel Carey, from Pennsylvania, was shot inside a small store on East Tremont Avenue at around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
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Police are questioning the man who was working at the store when it happened and investigating whether he shot and killed a would-be robber.
Surveillance video shows the 23-year-old walk up to the store and stop, touch his pockets, look around, adjust his mask and then go in while reaching into his jacket and opening the door.
Seconds after he walked in he was shot.
The video shows the door fly open and another young man nearly trips over the shooting victim on the ground, stumbles out of the store, and looks shaken by what just happened.
It's not clear if he was a witness, or the person working at the store who pulled the trigger, but he didn't leave right away.
Paramedics arrived a few minutes later but were unable to revive Carey, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Inside the store, a bullet hole could be seen in a shattered glass refrigerator door along with a shell casing. On the floor there was evidence of the violence and chaos that unfolded in a matter of seconds.
On Wednesday afternoon, Bodega and Small Business group founder Francisco Marte stopped by and said neighborhood shops like that one are in danger -- especially if they're selling cannabis products, which are supposed to be cash purchases.
"They are being targeted by the criminals because they know they have money or they have stuff that they can resell and make money," Marte said.
And neighbors say the business recently changed.
"It just became a dispensary like maybe a month, month and a half," a neighbor named Tito said. "It was a deli where you can buy your food, coffee and the typical stuff."
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Police took the suspected shooter into custody a block away at another business on East Tremont Avenue. His role at the store is not yet clear.
The shooter has not been charged so his identity is not yet known.
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