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Queens Bodega Owner Dies After Being Shot in Robbery
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By THOMAS J. LUECK and ANN FARMER
Published: June 14, 2007
A Queens bodega owner died yesterday after being shot during a robbery on Monday by three men the police said may have carried out as many as 16 other robberies since March 17.
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Uli Seit for The New York Times
Yolanda Ramos, a friend of the Cruz family, at the Queens bodega where Bolivar Cruz, the owner, was shot.
The owner, Bolivar Cruz, a 53-year-old father of eight, was shot in the face by one of three masked men about 9:30 p.m. at his store in South Ozone Park while a daughter, Angelina; a co-worker; and a customer stood witness.
The store, Kennedy Mini Market at 133-45 131st Street, has been a fixture in the neighborhood north of Kennedy International Airport for more than 15 years.
Two of the men were armed when they entered the bodega, his daughter said yesterday, and when Mr. Cruz reached for a pistol he was carrying in his pocket, he was shot in the face before he was able to discharge his weapon.
“I am very traumatized,” said Angelina Cruz, 24, who was joined by four of her sisters, speaking to reporters yesterday outside Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where a hospital spokesman said Mr. Cruz died at 9:50 a.m. yesterday.
“I saw my father on the floor bleeding to death,” she said.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, “We think there are other robberies associated with these three individuals.” Investigators laid out an extensive pattern of robberies in the neighborhoods of western Queens near the border of Nassau County and north of the airport.
In each case, bodegas or small food stores were robbed, the police said, and the robberies were carried out by one to three armed men.
Although no one was killed in the earlier robberies, the police said, some of them turned violent.
On March 26, two robbers entered a store at 143-02 Farmers Boulevard, and one fired a single round, striking a 49-year-old man in the left leg, causing a minor injury.
On May 6, three robbers entered a store at 112-01 Francis Lewis Boulevard, one of them hitting a worker on the back of his head, again causing minor injuries. Cash amounts up to $2,000 were taken in the series of robberies, the police said.
The police often seek to publicize such robbery patterns at an earlier stage in the investigation.
Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman, said yesterday that “when investigators determine that a series of crimes constitutes a pattern, and it is in the best interest of the investigation to make that public, they do so.” He added, “That happened day before yesterday.”
Last night there was another robbery at a bodega, at Linden Boulevard and the Van Wyck Expressway in South Ozone Park. The police said it did not appear to be related, and no injuries were reported.
Mr. Cruz’s daughters told reporters yesterday that the three men had entered the bodega as Angelina, who was working behind the counter, and Mr. Cruz, who was arranging bottles in a refrigerator nearby, were preparing to close for the night.
The daughters said that two of the robbers had used stockings to hide their faces and that the other robber used a bandana.
After the shooting, witnesses told the police, the three men may have fled in a red four-door Lexus with Florida license plates.
“A father’s reaction is to protect his child,” said Yolanda Ramos, a friend of the family who joined a hospital room vigil for Mr. Cruz, who had been on life support.
“He went to protect his daughter, and he ended up getting hurt.”
Other acquaintances described Mr. Cruz, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic in the 1970s, as a dedicated father and hard-working merchant who was widely respected in the neighborhood.
“He is a good man who doesn’t have a dispute with anybody,” said Frantz Lubin, who has lived next to the Kennedy Mini Market for 15 years. “When somebody comes into the store and asks for credit, he says O.K., you take it, and you pay me back.”
Mr. Cruz had a son and seven daughters. Several of them worked with him over the years in the bodega, which was closed yesterday. Angelina said the family did not plan to reopen.
“We are not going to keep the store,” she said. “It’s become a nightmare.”
Dmitry Kiper contributed reporting.