Beloved East Village deli worker shot to death, suspect wounded by bullet ricochet

An East Village deli worker was shot to death during an argument — and the suspected killer was wounded by a ricocheting bullet, officials said Sunday.

Abdul Saleh, 28, got into a fight inside his family’s store where he works, Sal’s Deli & Grocery, on the corner of Avenue B and E. 13th St., about 11:35 p.m. Saturday, cops and neighbors said.

After the fight spilled onto the street into the intersection, the shooter opened fire, police said.

The victim was struck in the torso. Meanwhile, the suspected shooter, also 28, was struck in the torso by a ricocheting bullet, sources told amNewYork.

A witness to the aftermath described a heart-wrenching scene. Saleh lay dying of a gunshot to his stomach while the witness and the victim’s brother stood by the ambulance gurney, praying as they tried to reassure he’d survive.

Neighbors described the victim as a mainstay in the community, friendly and generous to regular customers, and the shooter as someone who’d been kicked out of the store before.

One neighbor, Rex Hughes, 57, said he was walking his friend’s dog when he “heard a pop and a pop-pop.”

He turned and saw people running, then quickly brought his dog back upstairs and ran to Saleh’s side.

“They’re already doing palpitations and my friend’s dying on the corner,” Hughes said. “A really really good man, father, son, husband. It sucks. All over an argument that didn’t need to happen …He’s one of the funniest, most gentle, sweet souls.””

Hughes helped pull the ambulance gurney when medics arrived.

“His brother is trying to help him to calm down,” Hughes said. “There’s my friend’s brother praying and telling him he’s gonna be OK, and I’m telling him he’s going to be OK because it was a small bullet wound in the stomach.”

“But it obviously did a lot more damage than we realized and he didn’t make it,” he added.

Regarding the shooter, Hughes said, “He wound up getting into an ambulance too.”

Medics rushed both men to Bellevue Hospital, where Saleh died. His family owns the deli where he worked, according to neighbors.

The suspect is in stable condition, officials said. No charges were immediately filed.

Hughes saw surveillance video of Saleh and the shooter arguing inside the deli before the shooting.

“The guy had been just a real thorn in Abdul’s and other people that work there’s side,” he said of the suspect. “He’s just got a chip on his shoulder.”

One neighbor, Ciara Lugo, a district leader for the neighborhood’s state assembly district, described the family-owned deli as “the heart of the community.”

“As long as I can remember, they were the sweetest family ever,” Lugo said. “Even when I was younger, I would go in hungry and didn’t have money and they would say, ‘Don’t worry. Just come back. Tell your father to just pay me back and don’t worry about it. It’s OK.”

“It’s devastating,” she added. “I’m truly disappointed that this happened for no reason.”

Another neighbor, Cristina Montanez, 51, described Saleh’s family as “kind” and “amazing.”

“It’s heartbreaking. They treated everyone so nice and they were such a hardworking family,” she said. “We would always come in here and there was always a smile. If you didn’t have money: ‘Don’t worry about it. Come back later.’”

Saleh had just returned to New York from a trip to his native Yemen the day before the shooting, Lugo said. The victim lived a block away from the store, according to cops.

The shooting was the first homicide of the year in the East Village’s Ninth Precinct.

“They were 30 minutes away from closing,” Lugo said. “They usually close at midnight.”

Her husband, Jack Lugo, 52, saw Saleh just an hour before the shooting.

“He gave my dog a beef jerky and then he said, ‘Let me call my daughter,’” he recalled. “He calls his daughter on FaceTime and he shows her my dog. He was in good spirits.”