Upper East Side deli killer wearing hazmat suit, likely serial burglar: Sources
A night shift clerk at an Upper East Side deli was shot Friday night by a burglar who law enforcement officials believe robbed a Bronx store less than an hour later.
A man suspected of attacking two stores entered the first one on East 81st Street and Third Avenue around 11:30 p.m. wearing a painter’s white overalls, according to senior law enforcement officials.
A customer inside Dana Deli at the time told police that he was ordered to lie on the floor and empty his pockets before the shooter turned his attention to the deli clerk, officials said. It was then that the suspect allegedly hit the worker on the head with the butt of a pistol for the first time.
Officials said the customer fled when the shooter focused on the clerk and heard the gunshot after he ran out of the store. Moments later, he saw the suspect get out and climb onto the moped before driving away.
The customer returned to the deli and saw the clerk lying behind the counter, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head.
The police and ambulance responded to the deli and soon declared the seller dead.
The shooter’s nighttime crime didn’t stop there, officials said. Around midnight, police officers responded to an armed robbery of a store on Melrose Avenue in the Bronx. In this case, the suspected robber was again disguised as a white jumpsuit.
There were no reports of casualties in the second robbery of the night. Investigators were able to capture on video the moment the suspect left the store and climbed onto his moped to escape.
Senior law enforcement officials said the suspect’s description matched a pattern being investigated by the Brooklyn Robbery Squad, which was investigating two recent robberies.
The description matches a suspect wanted in two recent robberies in Brooklyn around 11 p.m. on February 25 and March 1, they said.
Police have not released the identity of the 67-year-old worker who was killed at an Upper East Side deli.
Customers who learned of the tragedy on Saturday evening were devastated by the news of the clerk’s murder.
“Every day I come here, buy my sandwich, coffee, he was a good man. I feel sorry for the family,” said José Ortega.
“He’s sweet and quiet, he greets everyone wherever they go,” said Anjail Baker. “I just hope they are comforted that people in the area appreciate it.”
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