Alleged gunman who shot and killed beloved East Village bodega worker charged with murder from hospital bed

Police reported that 28-year-old Kavone Horton, who lives just one block from where the deadly shooting unfolded, was charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon. He remains in Bellevue Hospital after he was struck by his own ricocheted bullet on Saturday night.

Those who saw the altercation between Horton and Abdul Saleh, also 28, described the gunman as a “local hood.”

Meanwhile, customers who frequented Sal’s Deli and Grocery on 13th Street and Avenue B, where the deadly shooting occurred on the night of April 25, recalled the slain deli worker as a man who had been ingrained in their daily lives.

“He was more than a deli worker. He was family,” Edy Castro said of Saleh, who has just returned from a trip to his native Yemen. “My heart’s broken because I’ve been waiting for months for him to come back. I love all the brothers, I love all of them, but I love him so much. He was one of my favorites, and I was really excited to see him again, only to find out that I lost him the same night that he returned.”

In the days since the tragic slaying, distraught residents created a vigil outside the establishment, placing candles, flowers, and photographs for a man who leaves behind young children.

Castro was not the only customer to describe him as family. Tanya Minto couldn’t conceal her emotions, crying hysterically while remembering Saleh as a happy man who reminded her of her own son.

“Whenever I came into the store, he was always smiling. We laughed, we talked. He would fix my food or sandwich, or whenever I made a purchase, he was just like family. This hurts because I think about my own son; enough is enough. I’m really tired of the violence,” Minto said.

Eyewitnesses say that Saleh and Horton got into an argument at around 11:40 p.m. on April 25 because the gunman wanted food on credit. When Saleh refused, they argued, and the fight spilled out onto the street, where Saleh suffered a gunshot wound to the torso. Garrett Erickson told amNewYork that he heard the gunshots from his nearby apartment and rushed to the street, where he performed chest compressions on Saleh.

“He was kind of in and out of consciousness, and then I checked his pulse. It was kind of very loose. And then he was just kind of very limp. And then I did compressions until, about halfway through one cycle, and then he kind of came back a little bit,” Erickson said.

He could not be saved and was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.

Last year, Saleh himself appeared on an ABC7 report in which he called for more panic buttons to be installed in bodegas, an initiative that was being pushed by the United Bodegas of America.

“We finished installing our 450th panic button in bodegas. When these panic buttons are pressed, the police are notified immediately, and the nearest police squad car can go to the scene almost immediately. This was a grant that we got, and we were able to do it. But there are 25,000 of these small businesses here in New York, and 450 is just, just a drop in the bucket,” Fernando Mateo, spokesman for the United Bodegas of America said.

As locals attempt to make sense of what happened, they told amNewYork they want the world to know what kind of man Saleh was. Christina Montanez recalled that whenever her son needed food and would visit the store, the Saleh family would always provide for them with no questions asked.

“It was really just heartbreaking, honestly, because if you knew them, they were just so generous, so kind to everyone,” Montanez said. “This is everyone’s favorite deli, the schools, the local businesses.”