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By Will Bredderman
Brooklyn Daily
The merchant found dead in his 86th Street 99-cent store on Thursday evening was viciously stabbed in the throat and shot in the head, officials from the city’s Medical Examiner’s office said today.
Police said that Isaac Kadare, 59, was found sprawled out on the floor inside his Amazing 99-Cent and Up Deals store near 19th Avenue at 8:45 pm and was declared dead at the scene. Investigators said last night that he had been hit in the head, but the extent of his wounds were not revealed until an autopsy was performed this morning.
“We’re treating it as a homicide,” said Grace Bruges, a spokeswoman for the city’s Medical Examiner’s office.
Kadare, an Egyptian-born Sephardic Jew who lived on Quentin Road with his wife, three daughters, and a son, was described as a devoted family man and a hard worker who converted his furniture store into a 99-cent shop during the recession. He was about to celebrate his birthday next week, his wife Nancy Kadare told the New York Post.
“I don’t even know what to say. He loved his family, his four kids,” she said. “He was a really hard-working man, I don’t get it. A person is alive one day, and the next they are not.”
Cops have yet to arrest anyone for the murder — the second killing to take place in Bensonhurst this year. Kadare never installed any surveillance equipment in his store, so it’s unknown what happened in the shop in the moments before he was killed.
As investigators try to piece together what happened, local elected officials are offering a reward for more information.
“We must stand together and make sure the perpetrator is taken off our streets as soon as possible,” said Councilman David Greenfield (D–Bensonhurst), who is offering a $5,000 reward with the Sephardic Community Federation. State Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bensonhurst) is offering an additional $5,000 for information, bringing the reward up to $10,000.
Violent attacks like this are extremely rare in Bensonhurst, but a police source said crime has been on the rise in the neighborhood this summer.
“The past couple weeks it’s been heating up,” the source said.
Anyone with information about the crime should call the NYPD CrimeStoppers hotline at (800) 577–8477 or visit the CrimeStoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com. All tips will be kept confidential.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at (718) 260–4507 or e-mail him at wbredderman@cnglocal.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/WillBredderman