Man fatally shot outside Chelsea’s Dream Hotel, Busta Rhymes later seen nearby
A 25-year-old man was shot dead in front of his twin brother early Thursday outside Manhattan’s high-end Dream Downtown hotel, according to cops and relatives.
Byron Morales, of Brooklyn, was blasted in the lower torso in front of the posh Chelsea hotel around 12:20 a.m., possibly after leaving dinner at trendy Tao Downtown Restaurant, authorities and police sources said.
EMS rushed Morales from the scene at West 16th Street and Ninth Avenue to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Morales’ distraught father, Earl, told The Post that the victim was enjoying a night on the town with his twin brother, Brandon, when the gunman struck.
“They just went out to eat dinner,” Earl Morales said by phone. “They don’t bother nobody.”
The shooting was the bloody conclusion to a dispute between Morales — who was not a hotel guest — and another man, cops said.
“It was a loud pop and I knew,” said a Chelsea resident named Liz, describing hearing gunfire from her apartment overlooking the scene.
“He was on the stretcher and I saw his face,” continued the 28-year-old, referring to Morales. “His eyes were kinda rolled back and he was unconscious.
“I just moved here so I thought this was a nice neighborhood,” she added, explaining that she recognized the sound of gunfire from having grown up in Baltimore. “I would never think this kind of thing would happen here.”
The suspected gunman took off in a Jeep with other men, according to police. It was unclear whether he was the driver or a passenger.
Police sources said that Morales was a member of the Outlaws street gang, and that it is being investigated whether his slaying was gang-related.
But Earl Morales flatly disputed that his son was in a gang, simply saying “no” when asked about investigators’ theory.
Added Byron Morales’ grieving grandma, Norma, “I’m hurting so bad. … He’s so young and he didn’t know anybody, anything.”
Hours after the shooting, rapper Busta Rhymes was spotted near the scene, though it wasn’t immediately clear why he was there, and reps for him did not respond to an inquiry.
The rapper, wearing an orange-and-black patterned shirt, was one of several people shown in photos congregating on the nightclub-lined block around 4 a.m.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
