CROWN HEIGHTS — A 69-year-old deli owner was found dead Friday, tied up in his bed with a puncture wound to the back of his head, police said.
Sergio Bosse hadn't been heard from in several days before his body was found in his second-floor apartment at the corner of Lefferts Avenue. Concerned friends found him with his hands and feet bound with duct tape just after midnight, sources said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the NYPD.
There was no evidence that Bosse's killer forced their way into the apartment, and his Mercedes car was missing, sources said.
Investigators had yet to determine if the fatal puncture wound was from a gunshot or another sharp object, sources said.
Bosse owned the building and ran Sergio's 24hrs Grocery on the ground floor, according to a police spokesman and property records.
Adamskie John, 56, who had known Bosse for 17 years, last saw him when they watched a Knicks game in the bodega Tuesday night, he said.
Bosse was remembered later Friday as a generous shopkeeper and a leader in the community.
John said a young man who lived nearby once came into the store, but didn't have enough money for a soda — prompting Bosse to give it to him free of charge.
"He was a leader in the community," John said. "I'm just really shocked."
A tenant of Bosse's who runs a Jamaican restaurant next to the bodega said he was a kind neighbor.
"He was a really good man. Any issues, he would work with you. I would never imagine something like this could happen to him," the restaurateur, Marcia Williams, said.
"He doesn't even speak loud. I don't know who would want to kill him," said another worker at the restaurant, who declined to give her name.
Bosse recently took his grandchildren and his daughter to Disney World, Williams said.
The restaurant worker worried about Bosse when she realized he had broken from his usual behavior.
"He buys soup in here every single day, but we didn't see him yesterday. We were wondering what happened to him," she said.
No one had been arrested as of Friday morning, police said.
