A pair of thieves shot and killed a Staten Island deli clerk during a stick-up Saturday night after they failed to enter a smoke shop they had first targeted down the road, police said.
Authorities released footage Sunday of two suspects believed to be involved in the slaying of 35-year-old Bassam Khateeb who was working at Manor Deli and Convenience when he shot in the chest around 8 p.m.
Khateeb, who co-owned the deli and was a father of two, was pronounced dead at Richmond University Medical Center, cops said.
Surveillance video from inside the deli shows the two men in ski masks sprint out the door following the shooting and into a maroon Jeep Cherokee, which sped out of the parking lot.
The SUV was last seen fleeing on the New Jersey-bound side of the Staten Island Expressway.
Before the fatal shooting, the two suspects tried to enter a smoke shop at 1949 Richmond Avenue, police said.
One of the suspects knocked on the door and tried to open it as he peered through the glass window, according to footage from the NYPD.
After the two men failed to get in, they walked away and headed to Khateeb’s store next.
The two businesses are separated by less than four miles.
Smoke shops have faced a rash of violence in recent months.
Last month a 24-year-old employee was stabbed and wounded during a brazen robbery.
Khateeb was the co-owner of the deli who one community member called “a hell of a guy,” according to the Staten Island Advance.
The Staten Islander opened the store about six months ago and typically operated it alone at night, the news outlet reported.
“He has always been nice, he tries to help people out, he takes advice from people,” a neighbor told the outlet. “He installed a deli when we [the neighborhood] asked for it. This just sucks, I’m terrified.”
Anyone with information on the shooting can call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
