1 dead in Manhattan high-rise fire

No words passed between a Bronx deli worker and the gunman who shot him dead Friday night, police sources said.

Around 6:40 p.m., the gunman entered the B & A Gourmet Deli at 217 Brook Ave. in Mott Haven, said police.

The suspect approached the 34-yearold employee and without saying anything shot him at least twice, said a police source.

The injured worker was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police described the suspect as about 5foot-5, and said he wore a fur-trimmed jacket with a reflective design.

No arrests had been made in the case in the hours after the shooting, police said.

Neighborhood resident Edith Robles, 42, said the deli’s workers “are nice people.”

“They’ve been good to everybody in the neighborhood,” she said. “Why would anyone come in and do that? I don’t know.”

One person died when a fire erupted Friday on an upper floor of a luxury high-rise apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, authorities said.

The blaze broke out around 9:05 p.m. on the 25th floor of the rental building at

351 E. 84th St. in Yorkville (inset).

“It was a small flame at first, and then firefighters were in there trying to control it,” said a doorman at a building across First Ave. who was on a meal break.

When the firefighters broke open a window, “a ball of fire” blew out, the doorman said.

It took firefighters 44 minutes to bring the blaze under control.

Authorities did not immediately release the name of the person killed in the fire.

One person in the building suffered a serious but non-life threatening injury, the Fire Department said. Another person sustained a minor injury. The fire was small enough that some building residents weren’t immediately aware of what was going on.

“There were no alarms, nothing,” said a man who lives on the building’s seventh floor and didn’t want to be named.

“It’s worrisome in a building like this. You don’t know what’s going on 20 flights up. I didn’t hear a thing.”

Seventy-eight firefighters from 20 firefighting units responded to the blaze. The 32-story building is outfitted with a pool and includes a garage in its basement, city records show.