Warehouse worker killed in fight over a cigarette: gunman arrested in New York

Daquan David, a 29-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting Nazim Berry, a warehouse employee in Brooklyn (NYC), in the head in the middle of an alleged argument over a cigarette.

The crime occurred in broad daylight outside the Amin Deli where Berry, 37, worked at Franklin Avenue and Lincoln Place in Crown Heights around 4:15 p.m. on February 26, according to the NYPD.

When officers arrived they found the victim with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County, where he was pronounced dead.

The store had surveillance cameras in operation that captured the incident that began inside and spread to the street, he said. Pix11. Danette Hollie, the victim’s mother, said her son had been shot when someone asked her to give him a “Black & Mild” cigarette from the store without paying. When Berry refused, both men began arguing and at some point the suspect pulled out a gun and shot Berry outside the warehouse and fled.

United Bodegas of America (UBA), in partnership with the Bronx-based company ProHealth, donated $8,000 to help pay for the wake and funeral of Berry, who lived in the neighborhood with his grandmother, suffered from schizophrenia, and had worked in the cellar for several years. His mother added that he had previously complained about people asking him for free things at work.

All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

This crime joined other deadly shootings on the streets of Crown Heights in a few days at the end of February: on Wednesday the 28th, a 33-year-old man was fatally shot in the head when he was ambushed by two people outside his residential building. The next day a 13-year-old boy returning home from watching a Brooklyn Nets basketball game was also shot and killed.

In New York, the interior and surroundings of warehouses are frequently crime scenes, both robberies and homicides. Many owners have chosen to reduce hours and lock up merchandise due to the rise in thefts in stores, pharmacies and warehouses.

Last month Juan Peguero, a 23-year-old young man, was captured in the Dominican Republic as a suspect in a homicide committed outside a warehouse in Upper Manhattan (NYC) in 2022.

Also that year, a Hispanic winemaker stabbed a visitor to death inside his business in Harlem, in the middle of a dispute that had started over payment for a bag of chips. He was finally exonerated of all charges, in the midst of a controversy in which even the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, supported him, saying that he was a worker who had acted in self-defense. The case also served to revive complaints about growing insecurity in New York stores and warehouses.