A 67-year-old man was shot dead inside an Upper East Side deli Friday night, in the first and only shooting and murder in the neighborhood this year, according to police.
Investigators say it as just before 11:30 pm when they received a 911 call for help at Daona Gourmet Deli & Grocery, located at 201 East 81st street, at the corner of Third Avenue. Inside the deli, officers arrived to find a 67-year-old man murdered — killed with a single gun shot to the head, detectives say.
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Police are withholding the name of the victim until his family can be notified.
Sources tell Upper East Site that the 67-year-old victim was a store employee and that the heinous slaying appears to have unfolded during a late night robbery inside the Upper East Side deli, adding that investigators believe the killer escaped with an unknown amount of cash.
The suspect was last seen wearing a white Tyvek-style disposable coverall jumpsuit and was last seen racing from the scene on an electric moped heading southbound on Third Avenue
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The usually 24-hour Upper East Side deli and market is now closed, and a small crowd of reporters and photographers assembled in front Saturday morning, seeking to gather details on the horrific crime that unfolded just hours earlier.
A woman in medical scrubs who didn’t notice the journalists staged in front of the UES deli, marched right past them, apparently a regular customer on her way to get her morning order, only to find the front door locked.
“This is so tragic. That poor man was just doing his job,” said Upper East Side resident Julie Coleman, “The delis will be the next places to shut down.”
If you have any information that can help police, you’re asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477.
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