UPDATE: Arrest Made in Slaying of 80-Year Old East New York Bodega Owner
UPDATE 12/15/17: Police have arrested 41-year old Mark Thomas in connection with the shooting death of Abdulla Yafaee. Thomas is charged with 2nd degree murder and 2nd degree criminal possession of a weapon.
The dispute arose over Thomas being short 50¢ as he attempted to buy a $2 beer, reports the New York Post.
Unable to buy the beer, he told employees “I’m going to come back and shoot you all,” a witness told the Post. Four hours later, he did, shooting up the bodega and killing the 80-year old owner, Abdulla Yafaee.
Mark Thomas is a career criminal with around 20 prior arrests for robbery, drugs and more reports the Post.
EAST NEW YORK – Yesterday evening, 80-year old Abdulla Yafaee, from PLG, was gunned down inside the bodega he owned in East New York.
Around 6:30 on Tuesday, December 12, police responded to reports of a man shot at the bodega on 797 Stanley Avenue, on the corner of Asford Street, police said. Officers found Abdulla Yafaee, 80, unconscious and unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the chest.
EMS transported the man to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased, police said.
Yafaee lived on Ocean Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. NBC New York reported that he was the owner of the store in which he was killed, which was the site of another deadly altercation in 2014.
An investigation is underway, though no arrests have been made at this time.
Anyone with information in regards 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). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.
