Suspect in deadly bodega shooting linked to 4 robberies in 3 boroughs, police say
UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Detectives are investigating whether or not the suspect who shot and killed a bodega worker on the Upper East Side over the weekend is linked to four robberies in three boroughs.
The same suspect who killed the 67-year-old deli worker Friday night may also have robbed a Bronx deli less than an hour later, police said.
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 authorities say 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 -- and released surveillance video from the Bronx holdup.
Now detectives are now looking at whether he may also be behind other similar robberies.
Two recent robberies in Brooklyn, on Feb. 25 and earlier on March 3, were also both committed by a suspect wearing a Tyvek suit.
The first incident was reported just after 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 25 at 1501 Foster Avenue at Sunset Bagel shop.
The March 3 holdup was of a worker at the Super Deli Market at 627 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint.
"Between the mask, the suit, the hoodie, and the whole nine, we are having a hard time identifying him," said NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph Kenny. "We are doing extensive video canvasses, all the way from Brooklyn to the Bronx and back over to Grooklyn, and we haven't had luck in the identification yet. That's why we are hoping someone from the community calls the tip line and helps us out."
A $15,000 reward is being offered, made up of $10,000 from the NYPD and another $5,000 from the United Bodegas of America.
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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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