A worker at a Bronx bodega was shot in the stomach during a violent spat with two customers, the NYPD said Thursday.
Cops have released images of the two men wanted in the Wednesday morning shooting in the hopes someone recognizes them.
The victim, identified by trade group the United Bodegas of America as Joseph Lewis, was inside Moe’s Gourmet Deli on Webster Ave. near E. 184th St. in Fordham at about 11:45 a.m. when two men, one wearing a red and white bucket hat, walked in.
An argument quickly broke out between the three men, witnesses told police. During the clash, one of the two men pulled a gun and shot Lewis in the stomach, cops said.
The two suspects ran out of the bodega and sped away from Webster Ave. in a white-colored vehicle, cops said.
Workers took Lewis to Saint Barnabas Hospital, where he was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.
No other injuries were reported.
The two men remained at large Thursday as Radames Rodriguez, president of the United Bodegas of America, called for more support to protect bodega workers.
“We must stop gun violence against bodega, deli and liquor store workers,” Rodriguez said Wednesday. “We must revisit what worked when times were tough. We are in a state of emergency. Everyone in New York City is a target of these gun-toting criminals.”
Rodriguez called for the NYPD to return to more aggressive tactics like stop, question and frisk, which Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin in 2013 ruled was tantamount to “indirect racial profiling.”
The NYPD has drastically reduced the number of street stops it conducts as a result of Scheindlin’s finding, but critics claim that the numbers of unconstitutional stops have been creeping back up in recent years.
“Stop and frisk isn’t the ideal solution, but seems to be the only solution,” Rodriguez said. “We must stop the shootings, the killings and the robberies now.”
The NYPD monitor tasked with making sure the department conducts stop and frisks constitutionally has cost taxpayers $36 million since Scheindlin’s ruling, according to a recent report.
Cops are asking anyone with information regarding Wednesday’s shooting to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
