Sheepshead Bay Cabbie Dies

 

Police and detectives search for evidence in shooting on Ave. Z in Sheepshead Bay Elmer Hassan/Brooklyn View

By Elmer Hassan

 A 24-year-old livery cab driver succumbed to injuries after being shot in the head by two men who had just robbed a cell phone store in Sheepshead Bay, according to police.

Zalmai Amwari tried to break up a robbery at a cell phone store on Ave. W and Coney Island Ave. at 3:55 p.m. on Dec. 29, after two black men robbed Atlantic Ocean Eagle. According to witness accounts, the victim approached the two men after they left the store, got into a verbal altercation that ended with the victim getting shot in the head.

One resident, Jamie, who did not give her last name, said she heard three “pops” around the time of the shooting, but police could not verify how many shots were fired.

The victim was rushed to nearby Coney Island Hospital were he died two days later.

“This kind of thing is nothing new for this area,” said Jack Cohen, a resident in the area for 45 years. “We get all these people that take the bus here from the Nostrand Projects. You never rob people in your neighborhood—you go somewhere else.”

The brazen, mid-day shooting occurred three blocks from the 61^st Precinct. Police flooded the scene and later released a bloodhound to familiarize itself with the scents of the criminals. “We’re gonna get these guys,” said one police officer, confidently.

 

Amwari, had just begun working for R & B Car Service and was considered by police to be a Good Samaritan. He attempted to thwart the robbery after hearing the commotion.

 

Police are looking for the gunmen who fled in a gold colored vehicle.