Police in Brooklyn continue to seek the gunman who executed a bodega worker in cold blood on Monday afternoon, apparently during an argument over a cigar.
According to authorities, 37-year-old Nazim Berry was shot in the head outside of Crown Heights’ Amin Deli at around 4:15 p.m. where he worked. Officers from the 77th Precinct found Berry laying near the Franklin Avenue shop with a severe head wound.
He was rushed to NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County where he succumbed to his wounds.
The brazen slaying left family, community members and the United Bodegas of America furious that a man could be senselessly murdered while at work.
“I heard the shot, I looked out the window, the man wasn’t moving, it looked like basically a head shot,” a local resident said, who asked not to be identified.
Those closest to the victim said he was gunned down over something as trivial as a cigar.
According to Berry’s grieving mother, a patron of the deli got into a verbal dispute with Berry because he refused to give the smoke to the man for free. The gunman then apparently returned sometime later and shot him, execution style.
“It is still deeply disturbing,” local Roger Parish said of how the incident unfolded.
The suspect was last seen wearing a black jacket, white sneakers and black jeans. Community members are begging for help in catching the killer. Police are offering a reward of $3,500, while the Bodega Workers of America are also offering an additional $10,000, for information that could lead to the apprehension of the killer.
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). You can also submit tips online at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
