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Same Gun Used in Bodega Robbery and Whitman Houses Shooting, NYPD Says

By Janet Upadhye | March 19, 2015 4:41pm
 The same gun was used in a Myrtle Avenue bodega robbery and in the shooting of Walt Whitman houses man.
The same gun was used in a Myrtle Avenue bodega robbery and in the shooting of Walt Whitman houses man.
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FORT GREENE — The same gun that was used in a bodega robbery on Myrtle Avenue last year was also used to shoot a man in the foot months later, police said.

A recent ballistics test conducted by the NYPD found the gun, believed to be a .40 caliber semiautomatic, was used in the October robbery of a popular neighborhood bodega and the shooting of a young man in the Walt Whitman Houses last month, according to the NYPD.

"The same gun goes to both incidents," a police source said. "So we are getting closer to making an arrest."

The gun was first used by a robber who entered Myrtle Grocery, located across the street from the Walt Whitman Houses, about 7 p.m. on Oct. 5 and fired one shot at the cashier after demanding money, according to police.

The gunman missed and the bullet struck the wall behind the register, the NYPD said.

The suspect, who police described as standing 5-foot-9 and weighing about 160 pounds, then stole $900 from the register and ran out of the bodega.

Ayesh Shami, who works at the bodega, called the robbery "the worst I have seen in my 25 years working in this area."

Four months later, on Feb. 9, a 23-year-old man was shot in the right foot at the Walt Whitman Houses about 9:30 p.m. with the same gun, police sources said.

The victim knows his shooter but will not identify him to police, the NYPD said.

An investigation is ongoing, police said.