QUEENS — A man was beaten to death outside a Long Island City bodega Friday morning just steps from the 108th Precinct stationhouse and his own home, police said.
After the brawl, bystanders ran to get police, but by the time they returned, it was too late.
Jose Antonio Cocuyo-Malaga, 32, was drinking alcohol with some friends in the bodega near 50th Avenue and Vernon Boulevard about 2:30 a.m. when he stepped outside and got into an argument with two men in a nearby livery cab, an NYPD spokeswoman said.
The men stepped out of their cab and one of them punched Cocuyo-Malaga, surveillance video showed, causing him to fall backward and hit his head on the pavement, police sources said.
Two other people nearby saw what was happening and went to the 108th Precinct stationhouse to alert officers, who then ran over, police said.
By the time the officers arrived, the suspects had fled in their car and Cocuyo-Malaga lay unconscious, with fatal head trauma, police said. The pair remains at large, according to NYPD officials.
The victim was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital, police said.