Chain-snatch victim fatally guns down ex-con after caught-on-camera mugging, video shows
An ex-con was fatally shot in the back by a man he had just robbed during a caught-on-camera clash outside a Harlem bodega, the Daily News has learned.
Daniel Straker, 48, was caught on a surveillance camera brazenly snatching a chain from the gunman moments before his would-be victim pulled a pistol and shot him on Macombs Place near W. 152nd St. about 11:45 p.m. Friday.
Straker, who served two stints in prison in the last two years, died of his injuries at Harlem Hospital.
Surveillance video seen by the Daily News shows Straker, wearing a yellow jacket, leaving the store just before his target.
When Straker’s victim steps out into the street, the ex-con storms over and rips the chain off the man’s neck, the video shows.
The stunned mark walks forward a few steps, then whirls around, pulls a gun and shoots Straker in the back, according to the footage.
Straker fell to the sidewalk on his chest. The gunman is seen on video walking over to his body, retrieving the chain Straker just stole and, and running off.
The NYPD could not immediately verify the details on the video.
Straker is from the Bronx, but the bodega owner said the ex-con had been living above the bodega with his sister for more than a year.
“He was a regular customer,” the bodega owner, who wished not to be named, said. “Sometimes he would be drunk, yelling and stuff but I saw him grabbing someone for the first time yesterday.”
Straker’s sister, Sherrie Straker, was not home when the shooting occurred.
“It was my son’s birthday yesterday and I was in midtown when it happened,” she told The News. “It’s heartbreaking that my kids and I had to see the (police) tape when we came back.
“It happened on a day like Thanksgiving,” she said bitterly. “It’s never going to be the same.”
Straker was released from prison on May 12, 2022 after serving seven years on a vehicular manslaughter conviction stemming from a 2012 Bronx incident where he slammed a stolen Dodge Durango into a Saturn carrying two women, according to court records.
One of the women was critically injured in the crash on Boston Road near Marolla Place, cops said. Straker was drunk behind the wheel and had stolen the Durango from Pelham Manor in Westchester County, according to court papers.
Straker was put on parole when he was released. His parole was slated to end in 2025.
The ex-con also served 16 years in prison beginning in 1996 on a Bronx assault conviction, according to the New York State Department of Corrections. More time was added to his sentence when he was caught dealing prison contraband while incarcerated, according to state records.
The gunman who killed Straker remained on the loose Saturday, cops said.
