VIDEO: Mercedes driver fatally shot by Bronx carjackers after going out to meet someone: ‘Told his mom he would be right back’
A Bronx Mercedes-Benz driver ran out to meet someone only to be fatally shot by carjackers.
Jose Alvarado, 45, was shot in the head during the carjacking in Hunts Point at about 11:55 p.m. Saturday, cops and the victim’s family said.
Surveillance footage obtained by the Daily News shows three men confronting Alvarado on the sidewalk outside his parked Mercedes-Benz on Hunts Point Ave. near Longfellow Ave. Moments later, two of the men drive off in his car, leaving Alvarado dying on the pavement.
“Why they didn’t just take the damn car and let him go? Why shoot him?” said the distraught victim’s cousin, who declined to give her name. He never did nothing to nobody.”
Medics rushed Alvarado to Lincoln Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved. He lived in Fordham Heights.
Police said Alvarado’s shooting happened outside the Diamond Club, a strip joint on Hunts Point Ave., but the club’s staff said the killing had nothing to do with their establishment — and shared surveillance video with the Daily News showing it took place up the block.
“Our staff heard the gunshots and ran down the street to help the victim and called 911,” said the store’s manager, who gave his first name, John. “We were just trying to help and deeply care about the community.”
Alvarado’s cousin wonders if he was lured to that spot to be robbed and killed.
“He stepped out, we don’t know why. He got a phone call and stepped out,” the cousin said. “He told his mom he would be right back. Somebody called him on the phone so he went out. His mother didn’t know where he was going.”
His killers took his wallet and phone in addition to his Mercedes, she said.
“I’m just hoping police finds his phone cause if they find his phone they can link it to who was the last person he spoke to,” she said. “We don’t know if he was set up, targeted or if it was random.”
Alvarado’s cousin described the victim as an introvert who mostly kept to himself.
“He was working and doing the right thing,” she said. “Everything was good with him. I just don’t understand.”
“The mother is devastated,” his cousin added. “I’m in shock. I can’t believe it.”
Alvarado was one of four people shot in the Bronx during a bloody two-hour span, cops said.
The bloodshed began about 11:10 p.m. when a 17-year-old boy was shot in the head on Morris Ave. near E. 184th St. in Fordham Heights, cops said.
Medics took the teen to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical but stable condition.
At 12:40 a.m. Sunday, a 20-year-old man was shot in the leg on W. Kingsbridge Road near Sedgwick Ave. in Fordham Heights, cops said. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition.
Just 15 minutes later, a 35-year-old man was shot in the head sitting in the cab of a tow truck after his SUV broke down on Bruckner Blvd. at E. 141st St. in Mott Haven, police said. He is in critical condition at Lincoln Hospital.
The following day, a 17-year-old boy was shot to death by a group of men wearing ski masks, police said.
The teen was on Beekman Ave. near E. 141 St. in Mott Haven when shots rang out around 6:15 p.m., cops said.
Cops have made no arrests in any of the five shootings, which are not believed to be related.
