The upper Manhattan bodega worker who was fatally stabbed in the chest after he tried to disperse a group of men outside his store this week was a beloved community member who also worked as a Big Apple livery driver, officials and locals say.
Mohamed Nasser Awawdah, 28, of New Rochelle was knifed around 8 p.m. Wednesday outside his family’s Dyckman Kwik Stop store in Inwood, according to cops.
Moments before the stabbing, Awawdah had tried to get the men loitering outside the Dyckman Street store to leave, police sources said.
He was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
No arrests have been made.
On Thursday, mourners set up a makeshift memorial for Awawdah outside the shuttered bodega, City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez said.
Local Alexis Stern, who laid a bouquet of flowers outside the shop, called Awawdah and his family “amazing” and “wonderful.”
“I’m heartbroken,” Stern said. “I’ve known them for years. I’m just heartbroken.”
Neighborhood resident Carlos Rodriguez recalled a heartwarming scene from over the weekend when he witnessed Awawdah let a customer slide on paying.
“This young woman came by and said, ‘Look, I don’t have the money.’ He said, ‘I told you, anytime you want, just come and get it,’” Rodriguez said. “That was the type of young man I saw when I came to his bodega.”
Speaking to reporters outside the bodega Thursday, Ydanis Rodriguez noted that it was the one-year anniversary of the machete and knife slaying of 15-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz at a Bronx bodega.
“Today, unfortunately, a year after Junior was killed in the Bronx … we are in the middle of this situation where a worker and family member of the owners of this deli lost his life,” the councilman said.
“It is so sad to know that this community still has to be dealing with [these] crimes.”
He called for the NYPD to increase patrols in the area and said his office is drawing up legislation for a bodega “panic button” program.
“We will continue coordinating efforts to increase safety for bodega owners and deli owners in the city of New York,” he said.
Fransisco Marte of the Bodega Association said the organization will offer a cash reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator.
“We’re asking the authorities to give us more security for all the bodega owners,” Marte said. “We are risking our lives every day, many hours a day. We need more patrol. We need more relations with the NYPD.”