A clerk working the late-night shift at an Upper East Side deli was gunned down Friday night by a robber law enforcement officials believe held up a Bronx shop less than an hour later.
The man suspected of hitting up the two stores entered the first on East 81st Street and Third Avenue around 11:30 p.m., dressed in white painter's coveralls, senior law enforcement officials said.
A customer inside Dana Deli at the time told police he was instructed to get on the floor and turnout his pockets before the gunman turned his attention to the deli clerk, the officials said. That's when the suspect allegedly first struck the worker in the head with the butt of the gun.
Officials said the customer fled when the gunman was focused on the clerk, and heard a gunshot after running out the front of the store. Moments later he saw the suspect exit and climb onto a moped before driving off.
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The customer walked back into the deli and saw the clerk lying behind the counter, bleeding out from a gunshot wound to his head.
Police and EMS responded to the deli and pronounced the clerk dead a short time later.
The shooter's late-night crime did not stop there, officials said. Around midnight, cops responded to a gunpoint robbery at a store off Melrose Avenue in the Bronx. In this case, again the suspected robber wore the white coverall disguise.
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No injuries were reported in the second robbery of the night. Investigators were able to grab video from the area of the suspect leave the shop and climb onto his getaway moped.
The senior law enforcement officials said the suspect description fits a pattern being investigated by the Brooklyn Robbery Squad, who have been checking into two recent robberies.
The description matches a suspect wanted in two recent Brooklyn robberies around 11 p.m. on Feb. 25 and March 1, they said.
Police have not released the identity of the 67-year-old worker killed in the Upper East Side deli.
Customers learning of the tragedy Saturday night were reeling from the news of the clerk's killing.
"Every day I come here, I buy my sandwich, my coffee, he was a nice person. I'm sorry for the family," Jose Ortega said.
"He's sweet and quiet, he greets everyone where they come in," Anjail Bakeer said. "I just hope they're comforted by knowing that people in this neighborhood valued him."
