Bystander ordering breakfast shot to death in Bronx deli robbery: Video
A 29-year-old man ordering breakfast in a Bronx deli was shot to death on Easter Sunday when he was caught in the crosshairs of a chaotic robbery.
Stefon Barnes was inside the Tremont Gourmet Deli on E. Tremont Ave. near Marmion Ave. in East Tremont around 4:20 a.m. when gunfire erupted, police said.
Barnes’ father said that his son was in the deli getting breakfast after a shift working as a party promotor.
“[They’re] parties for kids of his age, like little dance parties,” Martin Barnes told the Daily News. “He slid out from that party and was getting breakfast inside the deli.”
The victim appeared to be looking at a rack of snacks as a masked man struggled with another man near the door of the the deli, the video shows.
Patrons inside, including the victim, seemed to be unaware of the mugging. A group of young people, one wearing bunny ears, danced as they filmed a video.
Others waited for food while some watched the young people dancing. The mugging caught the eye of the employee behind the counter, who pointed for a coworker off camera to take a look.
At that moment, as the mugging escalated, another person stormed into the deli in an apparent attempt to help the man being robbed.
When the door swung open, a shot was fired off and seemed to strike Barnes, who was not involved in the fight, in the lower body, according to the surveillance footage.
“I guess, that’s when the altercation happened with the other two gentlemen and he got caught in the crossfire,” Martin Barnes said of his son. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Other customers in the busy deli scattered after the gunshot popped off while the man who had burst inside put the apparent mugger in a chokehold.
In footage from outside the deli, a patron and the victim were seen spilling out onto the sidewalk. The shot man stumbled behind a car while the people involved in the mugging took off.
The man who was being mugged inside appeared to be holding a blackhand gun as he left the deli and walked away, the video shows.
It wasn’t clear on camera who fired off the shot, but police said Barnes was struck in the right leg. Medics rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital.
“After the surgery, his heart could not handle it,” said Martin Barnes. “They tried resuscitation but [they] could not revive him.”
The killer ran off and is still being sought.
Barnes worked two job and had two sisters.
“He was a good kid,” Martin Barnes said of his son. “[He] never got into any trouble.”
