The shooter suspected of killing a beloved East Village deli worker during an argument was charged late Monday with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
The accused, 28-year-old Kavone Horton, 28, has been in the hospital since the weekend shooting. He is in critical but stable condition after being struck by a ricocheting bullet from his own gun, police sources said.the
The victim in the shooting, 28-year-old Abdul Saleh, had spoken before of the dangers of his work, saying in an interview that he welcomed a plan to install panic buttons in 500 stores.
“People get shot, killed,” Saleh told ABC7 New York last May, when then-Mayor Adams announced a plan to provide panic buttons for 500 bodegas and delis. “Sometimes you get robbed and the police never respond quick, come three or four hours late.”
Saleh, 28, was slain a day after returning from a visit to his native Yemen where he met his 2-year-old son for the first time.
Police sources said the suspect is a gang member who in 2016 was one of 120 Bronx gang members busted by the feds in what was then the biggest gang takedown in New York City history.
“These are very serious allegations — but they are just allegations. What’s fact, however, is that he was also shot and is in the hospital with a gunshot wound,” an attorney for Horton, Gary Becker, said.
“I represented him many years ago in his federal case. He was a teenager who had never been in serious trouble before. He was one of 120 people caught up in a net that the federal government threw out to catch young men and teenagers. At the end of the day, he served a total of 15 months in jail.”
Horton lived with his mother at the Campos Plaza II Houses located a block away from the deli where the shooting occurred, according to cops and neighbors.
Saleh got into an argument with his killer that was caught on surveillance video viewed by cops inside his family’s store, Sal’s Deli & Grocery on the corner of Avenue B and E. 13th St. about 11:35 p.m. Saturday.
After the fight spilled onto the street and into the intersection, the shooter opened fire, police said.
Saleh was struck in the torso and the shooter was hit in the upper body by a ricocheting bullet, police sources said.
Both Saleh and the suspect were rushed by medics to Bellevue Hospital, where Saleh died.
Customers said Saleh was warm, friendly and generous and that the deli is a neighborhood fixture.
Fernando Mateo, co-founder of United Bodegas of America, remembered Saleh last year saying his family’s store needed a panic button.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t get one,” Mateo said outside the deli Sunday. “Last year, we did a press conference up the block … He asked us that when we got the funding to try and get one for him — but we never got around to that. We never got the funding on time to do that.”
“We need to install panic buttons in every small bodega,” Mateo added.
“Today, we finished installing our 450th panic button in bodegas. When these panic buttons are pressed, the police are notified immediately, and the nearest police squad car can go to the scene almost immediately. This was a grant that we got, and we were able to do it. But there are 25,000 of these small businesses here in New York and 450 is just a drop in the bucket.”
Councilman Harvey Epstein, who represents the East Village and knew the victim, stopped by the memorial to pay his respects Sunday.
“it’s such a tragedy and we need to do what we can to avoid future tragedies just like this,” he added. “My campaign office was a block away. I’ve been here many, many times. We had my campaign pictures in the window when I ran for election last year. It’s a it’s an institution in our neighborhood.”
“I met him many times,” he said of Saleh. “Very sweet human being … He is one of those people who really cared about this neighborhood.”
