A sommelier at an upscale New York City restaurant run by a world renown chef was shot and killed outside a Manhattan deli, according to police, and three teens have been charged in his murder.
Vernard Floranda was outside the deli at the corner of West 160th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights around midnight on Oct. 2 when gunfire erupted, police said. Officers responding to the scene found a man, the 46-year-old Floranda, who had been shot in the chest. He was rushed to the hospital where he died.
Floranda was just a block away from his home when he was shot.
He had been a sommelier at the Upper East Side restaurant Café Boulud, run by famed chef Daniel Boulud, the Michelin-starred restaurateur known for his eponymous NYC restaurant Daniel. Floranda's mother told the NY Daily News that he had lived in the city for just two years after having worked at restaurants in Las Vegas and Hawaii.
Before working at Café Boulud, his LinkedIn page shows that he also worked at the posh Gramercy Park Tavern.
“He always works in the high-caliber restaurants,” his mother, who lives in San Diego, told the Daily News. She went on to tell the outlet that her son was simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
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Police were told another man, a 25-year-old, made his way to another hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to his left ankle. He was expected to recover.
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Two weeks later, on Oct. 16, three teenagers were arrested in connection with the shooting death. Jeremiah Bascombe, 19, Jason Texeira, 18, and an unnamed 17-year-old were each charged with two counts of second-degree murder, assault and weapon possession. Attorney information for the three was not immediately available.
