A Brooklyn bodega worker who wouldn’t give a customer a free Black & Mild cigarillo probably got a bad vibe about the killer, who later returned and shot him to death, a friend of the victim said Tuesday.
Cops released images of a man they said shot Nazim Berry in the head Monday outside a Crown Heights convenience store on Monday afternoon.
Officials said the suspect asked Berry for a free Black & Mild, got turned down, left and came back with a gun.
A friend of the victim said Berry was very generous and that if he didn’t give or purchase the cigar for the shooter, he must not have felt comfortable with him.
“If he felt like he wanted to buy for you, he would buy for you. If you don’t have it and he has the money for it and he knows you’ll come back to the store and pay back, he’ll give it to you,” the pal, Hadijah Pendley, told the Daily News on Tuesday.
“He probably didn’t know who the man was and was skeptical. He was a giving person,” added Pendley, a 22-year-old who who lives near the bodega.
The suspect, seen sporting glasses and a black-and-white varsity jacket with the letter “D” on the left side, was still being sought Tuesday for the shooting at the Amin Deli on Franklin Ave.
Officers found Berry, 36, outside the store near Lincoln Place around 4:15 p.m., cops said.
“People in the neighborhood were always asking (my son) to give them things for free. He resented it,” said the victim’s grieving mom Danette Hollie. “(The attacker) killed my son over a Black & Mild.”
Medics rushed Berry to Kings County Hospital, but he could not be saved.
A thin trail of blood led from the scene of the crime and down the block, leading police to believe the killer may have wounded himself during the violence.
Pendley said Berry’s death brought back bad memories. Her older sister was ambushed in 2021 by a woman who shot her to death as she chatted with neighbors on a Crown Heights stoop after a funeral for a neighborhood friend.
Cops said the woman followed the sibling, Delia Johnson, 42, from the funeral home.
“It’s a reminder for me,” Pendley said. “It’s sad. It’s crazy. Two people who honestly had good hearts and didn’t deserve the way that they died.”
She said Berry was loved and respected in the community despite having some mental issues.
The man was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 16 and regularly took his medications, according to Hollie, 58.
”He had a little problem, but he wasn’t a problem,” Pendley said. “He’ll walk around sometimes talking to himself and you know he’s not talking to you. So you just leave him alone and let him talk to himself.”
Juan Morla, a building superintendent on the block, said the neighborhood was in shock over the shooting.
“I know him 20 years. Nice guy, beautiful guy. Very nice, very nice,” said Morla, 52. “I was surprised yesterday. It’s crazy. Everybody’s surprised over here.”
Dozens of votive candles and flower bouquets lined the sidewalk where Berry was killed.
“He was a nice kid,” said a neighbor named Ray. “He was always cleaning up out here, sweeping up and things like that. A lot of people knew him as someone who was always helping.”
Anyone with information regarding this man’s whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
“People in the neighborhood made him nervous because they were always asking for things for free,” she said Monday.
Berry grew up in the neighborhood from age 5, according to Hollie. She said he was a fifth-degree black belt in karate, sadly noting, “It didn’t help him here.”
“He was my heart. I called him Pop. He had an old soul. Everybody loved him,” she said. “It was senseless. I knew it had to be over something stupid because I knew his heart.”
