Surveillance video released in murder of Brooklyn bodega clerk

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Police have released surveillance video of a man wanted for murdering a bodega clerk in Brooklyn Thursday morning.

The video shows the suspect walking into the Deli Grocery on Central Avenue in Bushwick just before 7 a.m., holding a gun inside a plastic bag.

Authorities say he then shot and killed 52-year-old Swadh Maged, a father of eight who worked hard and sent the money home to his family in Yemen.

Police are not yet sure if the motive was robbery or if the victim was targeted, but it doesn't appear that anything was taken.

The suspect, last seenw earing a gray and yellow jacket, fled the location in a light-colored van.

Community leaders are calling for a quick arrest in the killing.

"He was a nice man," the victim's cousin, Ibrahim Alnamar, said. "He took care of his family. He worked hard to take care of his family."

Alnamar said Maged had worked in the deli for about a year while his wife and several children stayed behind.

"He's a nice guy," he said. "He's an old man. He worked hard for his family."

Karen Farmer, who had heard the shots, would come into the deli each morning.

"It's heart-wrenching," he said. "It's painstaking for anyone's life to be taken, and someone so close to me."

Police found a shell casing outside the store and have concentrated on security cameras in the store.

"We've got a very good description and as we always do, we will look very quickly to see what video in and around the area might be available to us, and then seek your help to get that video out there," NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.