Brooklyn bodega worker fatally shot in the head, allegedly over free cigar
BROOKLYN - A 37-year-old bodega worker was shot in the head and killed Monday in Brooklyn after allegedly refusing to give away a free cigar, the NYPD said.
Police responded to a 9-1-1 call around 4:15 p.m. regarding a man shot on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights. When they arrived, they found the victim with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County, where he was pronounced dead.
The NYPD responded Monday to Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights.
The victim's mother identified him as Nazim Berry, and told FOX News her son had been killed when someone asked him to buy them a Black & Mild cigar. When he refused, the pair began to argue, she said.
"The whole attitude was they couldn't accept ‘no’," she said. "So from what I hear, they went and got a gun and came back, and when the guy went to draw the gun, Nazim saw it, and they had a tussle over it. And you know, when you bend down you're tussling and the guy pointed the gun right to the side of his head and shot him."
Featured
Hundreds of NYC bodega workers become legal gun owners through ‘secret society’
They created the "secret society of gun owners" to take their safety into their own hands, claiming this isn't to have a permit to kill, but rather a permit to defend themselves.
Berry, who lived in the neighborhood with his grandmother, had worked in the bodega for several years, his mother said – saying he was never in trouble.
"I knew it was senseless," she recalled thinking when she heard about the fatal shooting. "I knew that it had to be over something stupid because I know his heart."
She said Berry had previously complained about people asking him for things for free at work.
Featured
Bodega workers lash out against crime after violent Brooklyn attack
Two workers were stabbed and a third assault in Brooklyn over the weekend, as bodega workers lash out against a rise in shoplifting and violence in their stores.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on Twitter @NYPDTips.
Fox News helped contribute to this report.