A beloved Brooklyn wine store clerk was gunned down Thursday night when he tried to protect his girlfriend, who was being robbed of her jewelry at gunpoint, police and witnesses said.
Yoseph Robinson, 34, took slugs in the chest and arm and died behind the counter of MB Vineyards, a kosher liquor store in Midwood, police said.
"The girl came running out screaming, and I saw him on the floor. She said, 'They shot Yoseph!' said a witness who identified himself as Daniel. "She was with him as he was dying. ... He told her, 'Tell my daughter I love her.'"
A holdup man entered the Nostrand Ave. store about 9:30 p.m. and went after the young woman - identified by friends as Lahava - but were confronted by Robinson, police said.
Friends said Lahava, who was helping Robinson write a book, told them she was joking around and laughing with him when the thug demanded her bling.
Robinson yelled, "Leave her alone" and approached the man. A struggle broke out, and he was shot, said Daniel, recounting Lahava's harrowing tale.
"Yoseph saved me," a badly shaken and weeping Lahava told friends outside the store.
The owner of an adjoining shop said, "I heard screaming, yelling and then the shots."
Robinson was working late because the store remains open till 11 p.m. on Thursdays, the day before the Sabbath. It usually closes at 9:30 p.m., friends said.
Samuel Kauffman, 43, wasn't suprised at Robinson's heroics.
"He would always tell people to be morally strong. He was a role model to all the kids in the neighborhood. He was very spirtual. He inspired all of us."
The bandit fled the shop on foot, and it was unclear if he made off with the jewelry, police said.
More than 50 people from the surrounding Jewish community quickly gathered at the store to mourn Robinson, a popular figure in the neighborhood who had come to the U.S. from Jamaica and recently converted to Judaism.
Robinson, who took lyrics from the Torah and turned them into reggae songs, came to Brooklyn a few years ago after a drug problem short-circuited his music career in Los Angeles.
Robinson wore traditional Orthodox garb in the store and enjoyed telling customers about his "spiritual transformation from drug user and party guy to religious Jew and the book he was writing about the experience," a friend said.
"He was a kind and generous man who talked to all of us. He gave us so much. You had to stop at the store just to hear his stories. He was truly an amazing man," said Tzvi Freund, 25.
Yosef was a good friend of mine. We shared similar passions & interests in music. Him being Jamaican from birth & me being a Reggae Singer who is Jewish. He was a quiet & very sweet person always looking to do a mitzvah. He has a website http://www.yosephrobinson.com if people would like to learn a bit more about this amazing person…. Boruch Dayan Emes
ReplyDeleteA suspect was being questioned yesterday over last week's murder of a Brooklyn liquor-store clerk, according to police sources.
ReplyDeleteYoseph Robinson, 34, was fatally shot last Thursday in Midwood while trying to stop a robber from grabbing jewelry from his girlfriend and cash from the register.
The suspected gunman was being questioned yesterday at the 70th Precinct station house, sources said. He may also be responsible for another robbery, sources added.
Police have recovered the suspected getaway car.
Police have made an arrest in the murder of a beloved wine store clerk who tried to defend his girlfriend.
ReplyDeleteCBS 2 has learned the suspect confessed to the crime after a scuffle with police. Finally, a girlfriend’s pleas have been answered.
“I want him caught, everyone wants him caught,” girlfriend Lahavah Wallace said.
A surveillance camera captured this image of the suspect in a fatal shooting at a Brooklyn wine store on August 19, 2010. (Photo/DCPI)
Police say 33-year-old Eion Klass has confessed to the murder of Yoseph Robinson.
Robinson was shot to death last Thursday while trying to protect his girlfriend during a robbery in a Midwood wine store.
Robinson was a former hip-hop record executive who turned his life around and converted to Judaism.
Sources tell CBS 2 that Klass admitted to pulling a gun on Robinson and shooting him during a botched robbery that was caught on surveillance tape.
During questioning, Klass tried to make a getaway.
“When he was being brought in, the handcuffs were taken off him and he attempted to escape. A struggle ensued,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “He was taken back into custody, [and] he refused medical aid.”
Klass, who has already spent 11 years behind bars, has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon