The NYPD is searching for a gunman who shot a customer inside a Bronx deli during an armed robbery early Tuesday. Surveillance video shows the gunman entering 149 Grill & Deli on East 149th Street and Walton Avenue around 12:16 a.m. and opening fire within seconds, wounding a 33-year-old customer.
After shooting the customer, the gunman went behind the counter, pointed the weapon at employees, and took an unknown amount of cash from the register before fleeing. The wounded customer was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln and is expected to survive. Police describe the suspect as last seen wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants, and white sneakers. No arrests have been made.
Why Shooting a Customer First Stands Out
Robbers who use a firearm typically do so to intimidate employees into opening a register or safe, not as an opening action against a bystander before any demand has even been made. The gunman opening fire on the customer within seconds of entering, before robbing the register, suggests either a targeted act against that specific person or an unusually reckless approach to what would otherwise be a standard armed robbery.
What Investigators Are Working With
Surveillance footage capturing the gunman’s face and clothing gives investigators real material to work with, and the NYPD has released the suspect’s description publicly in hopes someone recognizes him. Robbery-shooting cases like this one typically move fastest when the public provides tips based on released footage, since the financial motive (a deli register) rarely points investigators toward a specific suspect on its own.
