Brooklyn bodega worker Nazim Berry fatally shot for refusing to give cigar for free

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A Brooklyn bodega employee was fatally shot on the afternoon of Monday, February 26, for apparently refusing to give a cigar for free. 

Nazim Berry, 37, who worked as a clerk at Amin Deli, 801 Franklin Avenue, Crown Heights, was shot in the back of his head after he got into an argument with the suspect, according to authorities and his distraught mother. 

Bodega worker Nazim Berry had previously faced issues of patrons asking for freebies

Danette Hollie, the mother of Berry, informed that the altercation started inside the store when the suspect asked him for a Black and Mild cigar for free, and he refused to provide it.  

She said that she was informed that the suspect had left the store but came back shortly after brandishing a gun and fighting with her son outside the bodega at 4.15 pm, as per the New York Post. 

"They said that they tussled … and the guy pointed the gun right to the side of his head, the back of his head, he shot him," claimed Hollie. 

Berry was taken to Kings County Hospital Center and later declared dead, according to the authorities. While a person was observed fleeing the scene on foot, no arrests have been made. 

Hollie said that her son has been working at the bodega for quite some time and had previously encountered issues with patrons expecting freebies.

She described he son as a "beautiful person," and said, "I knew that it had to be over something stupid because I know his heart."

Bodega workers' union pledges to pay $10,000 for information leading to arrest of Nazim Berry's killer

The grief-stricken mother mentioned that Berry, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and lived with his grandmother, had a case worker who would follow up with him.

In light of the situation, a bodega workers' union declared that it would pay $10,000 for any information that might result in an arrest.

According to Fernando Mateo, a spokesman for United Bodegas of America (UBA), Berry and the gunman got into a fight inside the store, which then spread to the sidewalk.

At a press conference on Monday night, Mateo stated, "Took a young life for no reason whatsoever over an argument, over a quarrel over a cigar. I mean, it shouldn’t have happened and it did."

For the protection of bodega workers, the UBA representative urged New York judges and prosecutors "to do their jobs" and hold offenders more accountable.

He further remarked, "We are at wit's end. New York is not what it used to be."