Man, 74, shot to death in East Village Tompkins Square Park was selling crack, heroin: NYPD
A 74-year-old man fatally shot inside Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park was slinging drugs when he fell victim to an ongoing drug war inside the greenspace, cops said.
Police believe Fermin Frito was selling crack and heroin in the popular but troubled East Village park when a gunman wearing a bucket hat opened fire on him and Edwin “Chunky” Rivera about 9:50 a.m. Friday.
“Frito was the intended target,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. “Rivera gets shot as well but we know Rivera is part of that same drug set.”
Kenny said Frito dealt drugs while Rivera was a “steerer” who directed potential clients to Frito.
The two men were on the Avenue A side of the park near E. 7th St. when the quiet summer morning exploded in gunfire.
Frito was shot in the back and died at Bellevue Hospital. Rivera, 44, also shot in the back, managed to run out of the park to a deli where cops found him a short time later, Kenny said. He refused to talk to cops as he was taken to the hospital to undergo surgery.
Kenny said that two drug crews have laid claim to Tompkins Square Park and are fighting over turf.
“This is connected to previous violence in the park,” Kenny said. “We have some suspects.”
No arrests have been made as cops continue to amass evidence, Kenny said.
“He’s an elderly man,” Kenny said of the suspected shooter. “He’s up there in age. He’s not a young kid.”
Frito had been arrested 13 times, mostly for drug sales. His last arrest was in 2012.
Rivera, Kenny said, has a “substantial criminal history … too much to mention.”
Detectives are trying to determine if the shooting has anything to do with an incident on June 10 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where Frito was stabbed, Kenny said.
After the shooting, Rivera’s relatives told the Daily News Rivera was an innocent bystander heading to breakfast when he was caught in the gunfire.
“He’s a very nice guy,” said Rivera’s daughter, who declined to give her name. “This had nothing to do with him. He was on his way to get breakfast. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
On March 16, two innocent bystanders, 26-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman, were shot and wounded in the park.
Waldemar Alverio, 33, was arrested on attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment charges for that shooting and one five days later in the park where nobody was struck.
Cops say he was having an ongoing drug-related clash with someone in the park when he opened fire at his rival and struck the two bystanders instead. Days later, he again opened fire on the same man when he struck nobody, police sources said.
Alverio has an extensive criminal history with 48 prior arrests and was staying at a shelter on the Bowery, about four blocks from the park, police said.
He is currently being held on Rikers Island without bail.
