Cops are asking the public’s help identifying and tracking down the suspect.
Victim Stefon Barnes was shot in the leg inside the Tremont Gourmet Deli on E. Tremont Ave. near Marmion Ave. in East Tremont about 4:20 a.m. Sunday.
Barnes’ father said his son was in the deli getting breakfast after a shift working as a party promoter.
“[They’re] parties for kids of his age, like little dance parties,” Martin Barnes told the Daily News Monday. “He slid out from that party and was getting breakfast inside the deli.”
The victim appeared to be looking at a rack of snacks as a masked man struggled with another man near the door of the deli, video shows.
Patrons inside, including the victim, seemed to be unaware of the mugging. A group of young people, one wearing bunny ears, danced as they filmed a video on their cell phone.
Others waited for food while some watched the young people dancing. The mugging caught the eye of the employee behind the counter, who pointed for a co-worker off-camera to take a look.
At that moment, another person stormed into the deli in an apparent attempt to help the man being robbed.
When the door swung open, a shot was fired off and appeared to strike Barnes, who was not involved in the fight, in the lower body.
“That’s when the altercation happened with the other two gentlemen and he got caught in the crossfire,” Martin Barnes said of his son. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Other customers in the busy deli scattered after the gunshot popped off while the man who had burst inside put the apparent mugger in a chokehold.
In footage from outside the deli, a patron and the victim were seen spilling out onto the sidewalk. Barnes stumbled behind a car while the people involved in the mugging took off, the video shows.
Barnes was struck in the right leg.
Medics rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital but he could not be saved.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential