A dishwasher shot to death outside a Bronx bodega gave his killer a fist bump — and then sucker-punched him moments before being shot as they got into a sudden quarrel, harrowing surveillance video shows.
Victor Bautista was shot in the chest by a gunman wearing a reflective green construction vest outside of D’mi Muñeca Grocery on Trinity Avenue near E. 149th St. in Mott Haven about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, cops said. The killer remains on the loose.
In the minutes leading up to the slaying, Bautista, 38, is seen casually chatting with a man on the sidewalk by a row of parked cars, surveillance video obtained by the United Bodegas of America advocacy group shows.
When the man Bautista is speaking with walks away, Bautista steps up to the shooter in the vest and they greet each other with a fist bump before they begin talking.
The conversation appears to turn tense and Bautista, wearing a dark-colored baseball cap and a blue hoodie, steps back and starts gesturing wildly up and down the street. Less than 40 seconds later, Bautista reels back and punches his rival in the head with a haymaker.
As the two men struggle the killer, who is carrying a bag, breaks free, pulls out something from the bag, aims at Bautista and runs across the street. It’s believed Bautista was shot when the suspect broke free from his grasp.
His cap flying off his head, Bautista runs down the street, grabbing his upper chest.
A second video shows Bautista down the block, cowering behind a parked SUV, as the shooter, still across the street, runs away. After a few more seconds, Bautista’s knees begin to buckle and he falls between two parked vehicles.
Medics rushed Bautista to St. Barnabas Hospital but he could not be saved.
“They were outside and a customer ran back inside, saying they are about to shoot — and then there was one shot, a single shot,” a worker at a nearby deli said. “He got shot right through here, in the chest. He was down on his back. He was fully, completely out.”
The shooting took place near the Moore Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development across the street from troubled St. Marys Park.
Heartbroken relatives said a visit to D’mi Muñeca Grocery was part of Bautista’s daily routine.
“He always stopped by every morning to see his son and then to visit his friends over at the store,” said JesusIta Nunez, 64, the victim’s mother-in-law. “We can’t believe it. We don’t know who would do this.”
Bautista worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant, his family said. “He was a good person, a very good man,” Nunez said. “He was a hardworking dishwasher.”
“We told his son and he is not handling it well. He is only 8,” Shirley Hernandez, the victim’s stepdaughter, 17, said. “We want the police to get whoever did this. We want justice.”
Fernando Mateo, a spokesman for the United Bodegas of America, said that workers at D’mi Muñeca Grocery are shaken.
“The entire incident was captured by the store’s surveillance cameras,” he said. “You can see the argument. You can see the shooting. It’s all there.”
The group planned to install a panic button inside the bodega Wednesday so workers can immediately alert police if further violence breaks out again.
Last month, Mayor Adams announced that the city will be spending $1.6 million through an emergency grant to equip some bodegas with “Silent Shield” buttons that would link cameras in the food stores to the NYPD in real time.
The money, however, won’t be enough to equip all of the city’s 25,000 bodegas with panic buttons and the United Bodegas Association is pressing for more city and state funding for the initiative.
“The owners of this bodega have been part of the community for 10 years. Today they are shaken. They are scared. They are not sure what tomorrow looks like,” Mateo said. “The NYPD should not be watching these videos after someone has already died. They should be seeing them live so they can respond before the next shot is fired.”
The city has seen a string of killings in bodegas this year, including a fatal stabbing in Harlem, and two slayings in a 48-hour period last month — one at the Ameer Deli & Grill in Inwood, where a 24-year-old man was knifed during a brawl, and the second outside the Shak Deli in Williamsbridge, the Bronx, where Sorai King, 20, was fatally shot.