A Brooklyn bodega worker was killed Friday afternoon by an irate customer who stabbed him multiple times, police said.
Diego Sandoval-Nava, 33, was working at a deli and mini market on Hegeman Ave. in East New York when a man came into the store around 3 p.m. and caused a disturbance, police said.
Workers at the bodega asked the man to leave, and he did. But he returned soon after and stabbed Sandoval-Nava several times in the torso when the victim tried to prevent him from coming behind the counter, a police source said.
After stabbing Sandoval-Nava, the attacker ran off.
Medics rushed Sandoval-Nava to Brookdale Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
A friend of Sandoval-Nava said the victim used to give away free sandwiches to people in need.
“He would help people outside, making sure they’re OK, feeding them,” said the friend, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Andy.
“He leaves behind a teenage daughter back in Mexico,” Andy said.
So far, there have been no arrests as police continue to look for the attacker, cops said.
According to a police source, the argument that sparked the stabbing was over “loosies,” or loose cigarettes, which are illegal to sell. Sandoval-Nava refused to sell them to his attacker, the source said.
In May, Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced the city would install panic buttons linked to the NYPD in about 500 bodegas across the five boroughs. The new initiative came after a string of killings in bodegas, including two slayings in 48 hours in April. It was not immediately clear if the bodega where Sandoval-Nava worked had been equipped with a panic button.
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