Man shot dead in front of his daughter in a New York warehouse: two orphans
A fight inside an Upper Manhattan bodega left Tykeem Berry dead as his 10-year-old daughter stood and watched, said police and relatives of the deceased.
After picking up her daughter from school, Berry, 30, took her to “144 Deli-Grocery” at Nagle Ave. and Thayer St. in Washington Heights to buy him a snack. But he and another man argued there and as their dispute escalated one man pulled out a gun and shot him once in the chest, around 4:05 pm yesterday.
“This man shot my son right in front of his 10-year-old daughter,” Berry’s father, Daryl Fracier, 53, told the Daily News. “My son was a good man. He is incredible. How are we supposed to deal with this?”
“The two young men were arguing inside the grocery store. The guy with the gun said, ‘Come out. Come outside. Out’. But he didn’t do it,” said witness Nelson Trinidad, 28, who sells fruits and vegetables out of a van on Nagle Ave. “So he went back inside and they got into trouble. He shot her right in the chest. Once.”
In the sequence captured on security video, the gunman dressed in a green jacket over a gray tracksuit is seen leaving the warehouse while arguing with Berry.
The back and forth continues through the closed cellar door until the gunman re-enters, pulls out a small pistol, and opens fire on Berry from outside the chamber. Berry, already wounded, continues to fight the assailant before collapsing on the pavement in front of the bodega.
“He fell. They fought and he fell in front of the door. With both of his feet still sticking out of the sidewalk,” Trinidad said. “He was struggling, but then he stopped breathing.”
Berry was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he died about half an hour later, police said. In addition to the daughter who witnessed his death, Berry left behind an 8-year-old son, according to his father.
“My brother was a loving, caring man,” said Berry’s older sister, Karen Mebane, 43. “He had a shady past, but he grew up to be a good man, a good father, and he led a good life.”
The gunman, believed to be in his 20s, fled north on Nagle Ave. toward Dyckman St., a police source said. Apparently Berry and his killer knew each other.
There have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing, police said. Anyone with information should call to 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also through the page crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
In New York the interior and surroundings of warehouses are frequently crime scenes, both robberies and homicides. Until the beginning of July there had been reports 195 NYC warehouse robberies in 2022according to the police.
Earlier that month a Dominican employee was arrested for killing an intruder during a confrontation at a Harlem bodega. days later it was cleared of all charges in the midst of a controversy in which even the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, supported him by saying that he was a worker who had acted in self-defense. The case also served to revive complaints about the growing insecurity in New York stores and warehouses.
Then in November a fight inside a warehouse spilled over into the street and ended with a young man shot to death by police in a confusing incident in The Bronx (NYC).
