New York police following shopkeeper link in bizarre ‘Number 8’ serial killer case
A suspected serial killer is being sought in New York after killing three Brooklyn shopkeepers with business addresses that share the number “8,” law enforcement officials told the press on Monday.
Police say the suspect used the same .22-caliber gun and targeted the victims as they were closing for the night in each of the shootings, including Friday’s murder of a boutique owner in the borough’s Flatbush section.
All three stores had the number 8 in their addresses, all three stores are within a five mile radius of one another and none of the store have surveillance cameras, police revealed.
All three victims were of Middle Eastern descent.
The latest victim was the boutique owner Vahidipour Rahmatollah, age 78, shot in the head as he prepared to close for the night on Friday.
Mohammed Gebeli, 65, and 59-year-old Issac Kadare were found dead at their stores in July and August – all in similar fashion.
On July 6, clothing store owner Mohamed Gebeli was killed inside Valentino Fashion in Bay Ridge.
On Aug. 2, Isaac Kadare was found dead at his Amazing 99 Cents Deal shop in Bensonhurst.
Authorities have said that ballistics evidence connected the weapon used in the first two deaths. Police say they don’t know the motive behind any of the killings.