Ocean Parkway Shooting Victim Natik Nisimov Remembered As A Salon Owner With A Great Heart, Despite Troubles
Police identified the 29-year-old man who was found shot dead on an Ocean Parkway sidewalk Tuesday morning as Natik Nisimov, a Kensington salon owner who the NYPD said lived on East 8th Street, near Kings Highway.
Cops found Nisimov with a gunshot wound to the chest at 1663 Ocean Parkway, between Avenue P and Quentin Road, just before 7am Tuesday. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the NYPD said.
As of Tuesday night, no arrests had been made, and the investigation is ongoing, police said. Nisimov was previously shot in the leg in 2012, but refused to cooperate with police, according to reports.
A memorial has been set up by Nisimov’s friends at the site of the shooting.
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The 29-year-old owned Natik’s Unisex Salon at 211 Ditmas Avenue, between East 2nd and Eeast 3rd Streets — which, according to the shop’s Facebook page, offered hair cuts, tattoos and cell phone accessories. We are not sure what will become of the business, and no one answered the phone listed for the salon Tuesday afternoon.
Nisimov had numerous run-ins with the police and had been arrested eight times, including for robbery, the Daily News and the New York Post reported.
The man’s super told the Daily News that Nisimov had recently moved out of his Sheepshead Bay home.
“He’s a bad guy,” the super said to the Daily News. “He’s got bad friends.”
His friends remember him differently.
“I remember when he first came to this country … It must have been late 90s early 2000s,” a friend who asked to be identified only as David told us. “He was a great kid with a great heart that got into a lot of trouble.”
Another friend, Jennifer, has known him since they were teens.
“He was a kind and good person and a lot of people respected him. Most of south Brooklyn knew him,” she said. “We all know who he was and that’s why I stayed away from the crowd, but he wasn’t a bad person, just very outgoing, but he cared about his friends. He was always a sweetheart to me personally.”
Many took to his Facebook profile just hours after his death – and before his identity was public – to leave messages of love and remembrance:
According to the Post, Nisimov previously sued the city and members of the NYPD, alleging officers beat him up and then would not give him medical treatment after arresting him in January 2014. He settled with the city for an unknown amount of money in February of this year, the Post reported.
With additional reporting contributed by Ned Berke.