New York Daily News

DELI MAN FOUGHT BACK

Likely was being pistol-whipped before slay: cops

- BY ROCCO PARASCANDO­LA, MICHAEL GARTLAND AND LEONARD GREENE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A beloved Upper East Side deli worker shot to death during a store robbery was likely trying to fight off a pistol-whipping when he was killed, police said Monday.

Cops are still searching for the gunman who killed deli clerk Sueng Chul Choi, 67, shot in the head during a robbery at the Daona Deli and Grocery on E. 81st St. and Third Ave. around 11:20 p.m. Friday.

The killer got away with only a tray of lighters.

There was evidence of “an injury to [Choi’s] left hand, which would indicate the fact that he put his hand up to try to defend himself — and the gun may have went off then,” NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph Kenny said Monday.

Detectives say the masked robber, seen in a surveillan­ce video wearing a hooded white hazmat suit and black gloves, struck again just a half-hour later at YaYa Deli on Melrose Ave. and E. 160th St. in the Bronx, though no one was shot there.

Investigat­ors said the robberies are part of a string of stickups, including recent holdups of two bodegas in Brooklyn.

“We are all outraged by this act of violence,” said NYPD First Deputy Commission­er Edward Caban.

“Each of us here in this city, we know what the neighborho­od bodega means,” he added. “For some of us, it’s like an extension of our living rooms. The person behind the counter is like family. It doesn’t surprise me that people have left cards, candles and flowers. We are disgusted such an innocent man was taken in such a cowardly act.”

NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph Kenny said the shooter arrived at the store on a dark-colored scooter wearing a white full-body Tyvek suit and dark-colored face mask.

A witness told cops the gunman told a customer to “lay on the floor and empty out his pockets.”

“The perpetrato­r then turns his attention to the homicide victim,” Kenny said. “He begins to strike this employee on the head with the butt of his gun.”

The customer ran out of the store — and heard a shot. The gunman fled uptown with the tray of lighters.

Cops responding to a 911 call found Choi behind the counter with a gunshot wound to his head. He died at the scene.

Police said the routine was similar in all four robberies: The gunman comes in and pretends he is going to buy something, then produces a gun and announces a stickup.

Usually, he gets away with money and cigarettes, officials said.

In the March 1 robbery, a hazmat-suit wearing stickup man robbed the Super Deli Market on

Manhattan Ave. in Greenpoint.

The gunman “calmly” demanded all the money in the register and five cartons of cigarettes, a worker recalled.

“It was my first time getting robbed,” the worker said. “When you see a mask and a hazmat suit nowadays, it looks normal with all those COVID things.”

A similar robbery took place at 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 25 at the Sunset Bagel Shop on Foster Ave. in Ditmas Park. The crook placed a food order, announced a robbery then fled with cash and several cell phones, police said.

NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey backed Mayor Adams’ Monday push for store owners to ask customers to unmask themselves upon entering a shop — at least long enough for their faces to be seen.

“Once you show the store owner who you are and everything’s OK, if you don’t feel comfortabl­e in the store without your mask on, by all means put it back on,” Maddrey said. “But we should be helping one another to feel safe.”

Adams, in an interview with WPIX-TV earlier in the day, said store safety might have to trump coronaviru­s concerns.

“Let’s be clear, some of these characters going into stores that are wearing their mask, they’re not doing it because they’re afraid of the pandemic; they’re doing it because they’re afraid of the police,” Adams said.

“We need to stop allowing them to exploit the safety of the pandemic by wearing masks, committing crimes,” he added. “You saw what happened over the weekend when an innocent store owner was shot and killed. The person had a hazmat suit on and a mask. He wasn’t trying to protect himself from the pandemic.”

The NYPD announced a $10,000 reward for informatio­n that helps catch the shooter. The United Bodegas of America Associatio­n added to that reward.

At a news conference outside the still closed store, the group urged bodega owners to post stickers that say, “No mask when entering.”

Associatio­n President Fernando Mateo donned a head wrap, a mask and a hoodie to illustrate what store workers face.

“This is what we don’t want,” he said.

“Not an old lady with a cane walking into a bodega — we’re talking about all those people with that hoodie up that covers their entire face so that the Police Department cannot identify them when they commit a crime,” said Mateo, a former mayoral candidate. “These criminals have gotten so comfortabl­e ... that things get out of hand and people get killed.”

Cops asked anyone with informatio­n on the suspect to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidenti­al.

 ?? ?? United Bodegas of America members rally outside store at E. 81st St. and Third Ave., where Sueng Chul Choi (inset) was shot dead during robbery on Friday night.
United Bodegas of America members rally outside store at E. 81st St. and Third Ave., where Sueng Chul Choi (inset) was shot dead during robbery on Friday night.

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