Bodega worker shot and killed on Upper East Side; suspect later held up Bronx store: police
UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- A bodega worker on the Upper East Side was shot and killed during a robbery late Friday night, and police believe the hazmat-suit-clad gunman may have held up another store in the Bronx a half hour later.
Police say the gunman first walked into the Daona Deli on East 81st Street and Third Avenue around 11:30 p.m., demanding money from an employee.
The gunman then shot the 67-year-old victim in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The gunman fled on a scooter south on Third Avenue, and police believe he turned up in the Bronx about a half hour later, where he held up a Yaya Deli clerk at gunpoint. Nobody was injured in that incident. The gunman fled from Melrose Avenue to 160th Street and remains at large.
Officials linked the suspect to both incidents because of the distinctive disguise he was wearing -- a white, Tyvek hazmat suit and a black mask.
The United Bodegas of America is offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in these incidents.
At the Upper East Side bodega, the victim was remembered as a kind man who was devoted to his family.
"Very nice guy, a family man ... you can't describe how nice he was... always hardworking, " said a friend of the victim, Angel Vieera.
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