A New York City man who had just started working for a supermarket was bludgeoned to death by a homeless man.
Bernardo Gonzalez Perez, 63, was sweeping the sidewalk outside the Harlem food store on July 7 when a quarrel with a homeless man started.
Suspect Carlos Ramirez, 48, retrieved a “large plank of wood” and hit the victim “in the head several times” leaving Perez unconscious with severe head injuries.
Police said that Perez succumbed to his wounds four days later. His mourning colleagues witnessed the ordeal.
“I had spoken to him right before all this happened,” one said. “I was in the back room and he had come to get hand gloves just 15 minutes before he was attacked.”
“The guy who hit him seemed drunk. He was probably high on something because he was laughing and making fun of him while he was lying almost unconscious on the floor.”
“I grabbed some alcohol from the store for Gonzalez Perez to smell to keep him awake because his eyes were shutting,” she said.
“The attacker stood there until the time police came. He kept the wooden log near the tree. The cops took it with them because it had blood stains.”
