By Connor Adams Sheets
A transaction gone bad in a Murray Hill parking lot late Wednesday night degenerated into a double shooting that left one man dead and another in the hospital, according to police and witnesses.
A 16-year-old suspect was arrested shortly after witnesses called 911 to report the gunfire, which took place in the lot behind Hanyang Mart at 150-51 Northern Blvd. at about 10:52 p.m. Wednesday night, a police source said.
Bernard Cho, 28, who lived at 244th Street and Alameda Avenue in Douglaston, was shot in the torso and taken to Flushing Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police. The second victim, a 30-year-old male, was also shot in the torso and injured and taken to New York Hospital Queens for treatment, where he was in stable condition Thursday afternoon, according to police.
Video surveillance tape showed a man witnesses believed to be the shooter running from the parking lot and through the store shortly after the shooting took place.
Police would not release further information about the shooter or the victims, other than that all three had names that suggested they were of Asian descent.
Police did not say whether there may be other suspects on the loose, but a witness indicated that there were about five people present during the altercation.
A worker at Hanyang, who identified himself only as Jo, was working on the roof of the shop Thursday morning. He said he saw police investigating the crime scene, and pointed out a car wrapped in police tape and a section of the lot including an open dumpster that was roped off in police tape and being guarded by a policeman in a cruiser.
“Blood on the floors, blood on the walls in the entrance to the supermarket. I had to clean it up. I guess it’s a feud over money,” Jo said. “I came to work. I had to clean up the blood. There’s one person dead and the person who got injured ran into the store.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
