Council members: Close Bronx bodega where 'Junior' Guzman was attacked

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Three members of the New York City Council have joined the chorus of people calling for the closure of a Bronx bodega where reputed gang members attacked a teenager who later died.

Council Members Ritchie Torres, Vanessa Gibson, and Rafael Salamanca sent a letter to the city's Department of Consumer Affairs asking the commissioner to revoke the business license of Zesarina Grocery because the owner allegedly did nothing when a group of men jumped Lesandro Guzman-Feliz on Wednesday.

"An owner who stands by idly while a 15-year old is dragged out of his store and murdered in cold blood with a machete is no longer worthy of doing business in NYC," the letter states. "While it might be unfair to expect a business owner, untrained in law enforcement, to perform heroics in the midst of savage gang violence, the failure to do something as basic as calling 911 is morally unconscionable."

However, on Tuesday afternoon a top NYPD official said that employees of the bodega did call 911 the night of the murder.

The attackers apparently mistook Guzman-Feliz for someone else, police said, but did not elaborate on a motive.

The men pulled Guzman-Feliz, known as "Junior," outside the bodega and hacked at him as he struggled to defend himself. Slashed in the neck, he managed to get to a nearby hospital where he died.

An online petition calling for the city to shut down the bodega has garnered thousands of signatures.

Authorities have eight men in custody in connection with the attack.