A New Jersey grocery store owner was shot dead by a stray bullet inside his own shop this week, according to officials and reports.
Rabel Ramos-Gomez, 46, was working inside the corner store on the 200 block of South 10th Street in Newark Sunday afternoon when he was shot, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
A law-enforcement source told WABC that a car drove up and someone started spraying bullets that flew into the store.
Everyone dropped to the floor, but Ramos-Gomez – who was cooking in the kitchen at the time – was hit, according to the report.
Ramos-Gomez, of Belleville, was pronounced dead inside his own store at 4:30 p.m., cops said.
The intended target of the gunfire is unclear.
Family members told the outlet that bullets from an AK-47 pierced the wall.
The grocery store in Newark where Rabel Ramos-Gomez was killed. CBS News
Rabel Ramos-Gomez, 46, was working inside the corner store on the 200 block of South 10th Street in Newark Sunday afternoon when he was shot, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said. Family HandoutMarisol Mendez, the victim’s sister-in-law, told the outlet that she, too, was in the store when the shots rang out.
“We were in the store!” Mendez said. “We heard the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, shots one after the other, one after the other. It was like a machine gun.”
“[Ramos-Gomez] was cooking in the back of the store. [Gunfire] flew through the whole store,” she added.
Memorial candles could be seen outside R&A Supermarket in Newark, where owner Rabel Ramos-Gomez was fatally struck by a stray bullet. CBS News“My sister and I, we ducked under the counter. When we got up, we thought it was a robber inside the store. It was no robber.”
No arrests have been made and the investigation is underway by the prosecutor’s office.
