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A person gunned down on a Brooklyn street in broad-daylight was the hardworking proprietor of a close-by smoke store and an “angel,” his youthful brother mentioned Tuesday.
Nelson Ortiz, 24, had simply purchased a sandwich on the Midway Deli and Grill in Canarsie at about 4:15 p.m. Monday when his assailant struck, his brother, Patrick Ortiz, instructed The Post.
“This is a nightmare — I awakened crying at this time for the primary time ever,” Patrick mentioned.
“He was a very good man. He was an angel.”
A close-by surveillance digital camera caught the close-range killing in all its horror, displaying the sufferer ambling down the road as a pair of unidentified males sporting hoodies stalk after him.
Nelson walks into the nook deli, will get his meals and is barely out the door when the shooter ambushes him, pumping two rounds into his abdomen earlier than working away.
Nelson clutches his intestine as he falls, then rolls over and appears to lean towards the constructing.
The sufferer, who lived a couple of block from the deli on Avenue L close to East ninety fifth Street, was taken to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, the place he was pronounced dead.
Patrick remembered his older brother as a person who beloved video video games and labored ceaselessly to develop the close by smoke store — Flossy Exotics — that the pair opened just a few years in the past.
“It was a blessing,” Patrick mentioned.
“We have been so broke we couldn’t eat daily. But we opened the shop and every little thing modified. My brother, he labored laborious … He took care of me.”
Vincent Fontana, the 45-year-old proprietor of Original Pizza just a few doorways down, mentioned he typically noticed Nelson strolling up and down Avenue L.
But Monday was totally different.
Fontana was standing behind his counter when he heard three pictures ring out, he instructed The Post.
And when he went exterior, he noticed Nelson on the bottom, clutching his abdomen and gasping for air.
Patrick mentioned he may inform immediately that his brother was dead.
“He was mendacity there, he wasn’t gagging or transferring,” Patrick mentioned.
“I may see the blood popping out [of the bullet wounds] … his pores and skin simply modified. You can inform when somebody’s dead.”
Fontana mentioned he’s satisfied it was a focused assault.
Nelson had an argument with somebody in his smoke store final week, he heard.
And the surveillance video reveals two males shadowing him earlier than the capturing.
It could be the newest instance of the Wild West-style violence that has engulfed lots of the metropolis’s 1,500 or so unlicensed, unregulated smoke retailers and left a path of dead males in its wake.
Just final week, a reputed gangbanger allegedly executed a Brooklyn man after the 2 had phrases inside a Harlem retailer.
It was the second man he’d allegedly killed in 27 hours, cops mentioned.
Cops mentioned the suspects in Ortiz’s killing fled south on East 95th Street.
Both have darkish complexions.
One wore a yellow sweater and matching sneakers, whereas the opposite wore a blue hoodie with yellow stripes, police mentioned.
No arrests have been made.
Meanwhile, Patrick mentioned he’s fearful the shooter will return.
His brother didn’t have issues with anybody — however the killer positively knew who he was, Patrick mentioned.
“I simply hope they catch the man who did it quick,” Patrick mentioned.
“I’m scared.”
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods and Craig McCarthy
