alleged gunman as 31-year-old Jesus Acosta.<\/a><\/p>\nThe shootings have prompted renewed calls from the United Bodegas of America for increased protections for bodega owners and tougher measures to address violent crime.<\/p>\n
Speaking Tuesday in Mott Haven, UBA spokesman Fernando Mateo urged lawmakers to implement stricter gun laws and penalties, expand the use of panic buttons in stores, and allow business owners to legally carry firearms for self-defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be able to defend ourselves, defend our customers, defend our community. Right now we’re sitting ducks,\u201d Mateo said.<\/p>\n
The news conference was held near East 149th Street and Walton Avenue, where police say Acosta entered a bodega on Monday, shot and killed Shuler, robbed the store, and injured a bodega employee.<\/p>\n
Surveillance video from the incident shows the employee taking cover on the floor behind the cash register. The worker, who survived the encounter, said he was grateful to be alive.<\/p>\n
According to investigators, Yousef was killed, and another man was wounded in that attack after Acosta allegedly opened fire inside a restaurant in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are two people that lost their lives, families lost relatives, communities lost loved ones; and we need to get serious about this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
State records show Acosta was released on parole approximately four months ago after serving an 11-year prison sentence for attempted murder. <\/p>\n
The United Bodegas of America has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Acosta’s arrest. The FBI has also announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have identified the two men killed in separate shootings in the Bronx and Brooklyn, as investigators continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-331602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}