NYPD: Upper West Side deli employee fatally shot; possible connection to Bronx bodega robbery

Police say a man wearing all white walked into a bodega on the corner of Melrose Avenue and East 160th street just after midnight and pulled out a gun.

News 12 Staff

Mar 4, 2023, 12:33 PM

Updated 645 days ago

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Police said a 67-year-old deli employee was fatally shot on the Upper West Side Friday in an incident possibly connected to a robbery in the Bronx.
Officers found the victim dead with a bullet wound to his head around 11:30 p.m. at the Daona Gourmet Deli on East 81st Street.
The NYPD is now on the hunt for a masked man who was wearing a white hazmat suit and who drove away on a scooter.
Police said this incident could be connected to an armed robbery in Melrose since both suspects match descriptions.
After the fatal shooting at the Daona Gourmet Deli, police believe the same man made his way to Yaya Deli on the corner of Melrose Avenue and East 160th Street, where surveillance cameras caught him robbing the store at gun point a little after midnight.
The owner said the thief took $1,000, lighters and batteries that were behind the counter before he fled.
No one was injured during the robbery.
In response to the two shootings, the United Bodegas of America is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.
A statement recently released by the association reads in part, "We must put an end to these brutal assaults on our bodega owners. These criminals must be taken off our streets and punished. We cannot allow criminals to go free and commit murder and robberies at will."