MANHATTAN — A man with a lengthy rap sheet was charged with fatally shooting an upstate man in the head outside a Central Harlem bodega in January after getting hauled in for smoking pot in Times Square last week, police said.
Hector Centeno, 24, was arrested and charged with murdering 22-year-old Michael Riley in front of the bodega at 218 Saint Nicholas Ave. on Jan. 25, police said.
Centeno, of West 141st Street, was busted by NYPD transit officers after he was spotted smoking a joint outside with an unnamed individual near Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street on March 2 around 10:45 p.m., police said.
Centeno, who has been arrested 12 times between 2000 and 2013, also had a fraudulent check, forged credit cards and oxycodone pills in his pants pocket when police searched him, the NYPD said.
While the pair was being booked, Centeno’s name came up as a suspect in the slaying, police said.
Riley, of Liberty, New York, was walking out of Adnader Inc. Grocery on Saint Nicholas Avenue with his girlfriend after grabbing snacks from the store when he was shot, police said.
Several men were seen lurking outside the store, and when Riley walked out, one of the men pulled out a gun and fired a single shot into his head, a source said.
Centeno was charged with murder and criminal weapons possession for the shooting, as well as gun possession, drug possession and forgery for the March 2 arrest, court documents show.
He was remanded on the murder charge and given $25,000 cash bail for the drug and gun possession charges.
His next court date is set for Wednesday, records show.
