Bodega owner and customers shield 9-year-old from seeing her father in his final moments. Marc Santia reports.
A father picking up snacks for his daughter from his neighborhood bodega in Manhattan was shot to death during a dispute with a gunman, as workers scrambled to shield the man's young daughter just feet away from the tragic scene.
The deadly incident occurred just after 4 p.m. Thursday at the 144 Deli Grocery on Nagle Avenue in Inwood, according to police.
Surveillance video showed a man in a green North Face jacket by the front door of the shop yelling and reaching for something with his right hand. Moments later, the footage shows who he was shouting at: 30-year-old Tykeem Berry, seen in a red puffy jacket as he placed his headphones on the counter.
The employees behind the cash register appeared to tell Berry to stay inside the store, when suddenly the other man burst back into the bodega and pulled out a gun. Berry wrestled with him, video showed, before police said he was shot in the chest at point-blank range.
Another surveillance camera captured the shooter sprinting away, crossing the street as he fled the scene. The bodega owner says people crowded around the victim during his final moments.
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"He call [for] help, he put the hand, so everybody grab and come to help," said owner Ahmad El-Myndcer.
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Someone administered aid before police arrived as a witness said Berry slipped in and out of consciousness. He was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital, police said.
What the cameras didn’t capture were the bodega employees and customers shielding the victim’s daughter, who was inside the shop at the time of the bloodshed. El-Myndcer said the girl is about 8-10 years old.
"I don’t want the children to see their father. He got killed, it's going to affect them in the future, she will have issue, problem," said El-Myndcer. "We keep her inside, we give her soda, we give her whatever she want."
The owner of the bodega told NBC New York that the victim was a loyal customer of 15 years. He would stop at the store every morning to order a sandwich for his daughter before dropping her off at school.
Police interviewed witnesses, of which there were many, as there were people inside and outside the bodega. What sparked the argument between the two men was not immediately clear.
The suspect was still on the run as of Friday morning, and no arrests have yet been made.
Anyone with information is asked asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website.
