Killed over 50¢!
Deli worker, 80, shot after thug didn’t get beer break k
Life is cheap for this killer. A Brooklyn bodega customer came up 50 cents short when he tried to buy a Corona — and he got so mad over not getting a cut-rate beer that he opened fire, killing an elderly worker, police sources told The Post.
The fatal shot struck 80-yearold Abdulla Yafaee in the chest at 797 Deli at Stanley Avenue and Ashford Street in East New York at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.
Yafaee “was a hardworking man, working at 80 years old, and this savage comes in and shoots him for 50 cents,” said one law-enforcement source.
“He was shooting wildly — like a madman,” the source added of the gunman.
“It’s lucky he didn’t kill anyone else.”
The gunman had asked for a Corona from the bodega’s fridge at about 2:30 p.m. that day, throwing down $1.50 in payment.
“Hey, that’s $2!” shouted a younger worker, law-enforcement sources said.
“I’m going to come back,” the man said menacingly as he left without his beer. “. . . and shoot you all.” Four hours later, the man returned, thirsty for revenge — and he fired off a fusillade of 12 shots.
The only bullet to hit a worker was the round that pierced Yafaee’s chest.
“He came back with gun blazing, and this old guy caught the bullet,” a second law-enforcement source added. “I’m amazed at the depravity.”
Yafaee “didn’t even have anything to do with the original dispute,” the source said.
“And he wound up losing his life — because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The energetic octogenarian had been making ends meet by holding down a job at the East New York bodega and at a store near his apartment five miles west, the Ocean Avenue Candy store in Lefferts Gardens.
“He’s a good guy, a hard worker,” Taha Ubeid, 28, told The Post of the Yemeni immigrant.
“People loved him so much,” added Ubeid, a night clerk at Ocean Avenue Candy.
The coldhearted gunman fled after cutting down Yafaee.
But he was caught on clear video and was recognized by bodega workers as someone who had been in the store before, sources said.
Cops were continuing their search for the suspect early Thursday.
“It’s crazy for 50 cents to shoot someone in the chest,” said Ubeid. “It’s bad, man.
“We are told to respect old people. He is an old man who doesn’t even speak English. They hurt someone people loved.”
Yafaee’s customers at the Lefferts Gardens store expressed outrage.
“It makes me wonder if the shooter had mental-health issues,” said Princess Francois, 28, of Brooklyn.
“Unfortunately, it is common,” she said of the store violence. “Sad for the old man.”
Said neighbor Mikey Nicks, 31, “I’m not startled. You know, like welcome to Brooklyn. Silver lining is the dead guy was 80 — he seemed to be liked so he will go to heaven.”
But Nicks had a different prediction for the gunman.
“The shooter will definitely go to hell,” he said, “where there is no Corona.”