A New York bodega worker who warned he feared for his safety was shot and killed outside his shop, leaving family and neighbors demanding answers about crime, repeat offenders, and public safety policies.
Less than a year ago, Abdul Saleh told reporters, “People got shot, killed. Sometimes they got robbed, and the police never respond quick.” He was 28, a father of two who had spoken openly about feeling unsafe in the city he served by working long hours at his family’s deli. Those fears became a fatal reality when he was shot outside his workplace and bled to death in his brother’s arms.
Saleh had just returned to New York after traveling to Yemen to see his wife and young children, making the timing of the attack especially cruel for his family. Witnesses say the confrontation was with a man known to staff and neighbors for thefts and intimidation. The scene left a community shaken and grieving for a man who had voiced simple concerns about safety.
He was shot to death by a known shoplifter outside of his workplace and bled to death in his brother’s arms.
A Big Apple deli worker gunned down outside his family’s bodega after a late-night scuffle with a known menace had tragically begged his brother to take care of his kids as he bled to death in his arms.
Father of two Abdul Saleh, 28, uttered the final heartbreaking words to his sibling just moments after he took a bullet outside Sal’s Deli and Grocery in East Village late Saturday night, a grieving relative told The Post.
“Before he died, he said, ‘Just take care of my kids,’” Saleh’s heartbroken cousin, Basam Hussain, said.
According to family accounts, the shooter was a repeat offender who had a history with the shop. Saleh’s cousin described a pattern: someone who would “want stuff for free,” grab items and try to start fights with staff. Those patterns of petty theft and harassment, officers and owners say, foreshadowed the escalation that led to his death.
Mamdani said violence is a social construct. Saleh’s family would disagree.
For neighbors and business owners, this case reads like a catalog of warning signs: calls to police, complaints filed, and a known local bully who kept returning to the same small store. When preventative measures or meaningful consequences fail to arrive, fear becomes routine and tragedies become predictable. That’s the bitter calculus families in parts of the city are living with every day.
Democrats consider that a feature, not a bug, of their policies.
The alleged shooter, identified as Kavone Horton, 28, had nearly a dozen prior arrests and a long rap sheet tied to neighborhood violence. He was reportedly part of a 2016 federal takedown involving dozens of alleged gang members and implicated in incidents that included a stabbing of a 15-year-old and a stray bullet that killed a 92-year-old woman in her home.
Despite that history, Horton was sentenced to time served in 2017 and released under supervised release, a decision neighbors say failed to keep a dangerous pattern from continuing. The bodega filed multiple complaints about his behavior, and staff say his harassment included spitting on workers, escalating daily degradation into deadly confrontation. Now Horton faces charges including murder, manslaughter, and weapons possession while the city’s approach to repeat offenders comes under renewed scrutiny.
Horton is currently hospitalized after being struck by a ricocheted bullet during the fight that left Saleh dead, another grim detail in an already tragic sequence. Prosecutors say the charges are serious and the case will test whether the justice system finally enforces consequences that deter future violence. Families in the neighborhood want more than promises; they want policies that keep dangerous people off the streets.
The loss hits especially hard because Saleh was not just a worker; he was a husband and father whose last plea was for his kids’ safety. That simple human moment, preserved in the accounts of relatives, underscores the stakes behind debates about crime, bail, and prosecution. When communities repeatedly see the same faces returning to the same harmful behavior, trust in institutions erodes.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
