MANHATTAN – This morning police took a 37-year-old Georgia man into custody, charging him with murder and attempted murder in connection with the grisly shooting inside an Upper East Side auto repair shop that left the manager dead and another worker hospitalized.
NYPD investigators say Zachery Bryant was arrested this morning and as of this afternoon is being processed through central booking. It’s not clear when the suspect will make his first appearance before a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court.
It was around 9:30 on the morning of August 23rd, when a quiet block between First and Second Avenues was turned into the scene of a murder.
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Investigators say Bryant is the man seen on video wearing a dark blue hoodie and white gloves looking around before casually getting into a blue Chevy Equinox and fleeing the scene of the crime after the grisly murder.
Police say the suspect walked into NY Auto, Inc.’s garage on East 95th Street, got into some kind of argument— its not clear what the dispute was about— then started shooting, killing the 33-year-old manager Mario Gonzalez and wounding another 43-year-old employee.
A witness at the scene of the murder told Upper East Site that day that no gunshots were heard as the shooting unfolded, implying that the killer somehow muffled the gunshots so witnesses outside the shop wouldn’t hear them.
The motive for the killing is still not clear, but for the victim’s family this tragedy is like an open wound.
“He was only 33 years old, and the sweetest person you could ever meet,” wrote relative Asriel Gonzalez in a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with the cost of Mario’s funeral last month.
A $3,500 reward was being offered for tips leading to an arrest in this case, however, its not clear if today’s arrest was a result of a tip called in to NYPD Crime Stoppers.
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