NYPD: Man takes officer's gun, kills deli worker

Police say a man wrestled a gun from an officer and used it to fatally shoot a Bronx deli worker early Tuesday morning. They say a witness flagged down two officers and told them the man was fighting

News 12 Staff

Aug 10, 2016, 4:05 AM

Updated 2,826 days ago

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NYPD: Man takes officer's gun, kills deli worker
Police say a man wrestled a gun from an officer and used it to fatally shoot a Bronx deli worker early Tuesday morning.
They say a witness flagged down two officers and told them the man was fighting with workers inside a Valentine Avenue bodega near East 19th Street in Bedford Park around 1 a.m.
When officers went inside the store, authorities say they found 30-year-old Efrain Guzman fighting with the workers. They escorted him out of the deli, but he allegedly grabbed one of the officer's guns and fired 15 rounds before the second officer shot him twice.
A 49-year-old bodega worker, Wali Camara, followed the struggle across the street to try and help the officers. One of Guzman's shots struck him, and he later died at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Guzman is in stable condition at St. Barnabas Hospital, according to police. 
Police say it's generally very difficult to steal a gun from an officer's holster.
"There's only three ways to get that gun out of that holster," says retired NYPD Detective Carlton Berkley. "One is a person with enormous strength. The other is if an officer believed that they locked their gun in, and they didn't. And the other way is if an ex-officer told someone how to do that."


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