Homeless Man Shoots A Customer Inside Queens Store; Off-Duty NYPD Police Tackles Gunman

An off-duty NYPD cop jumped into action when he tackled an alleged gunman inside a Queens deli on Monday night.

The shooting incident happened at the Craft Beer Lotto Cigar store around 6 p.m. on Cross Bay Boulevard. According to police, the 63-year-old gunman entered the Cross Bay Express Deli in Ozone Park to buy lottery tickets and started to argue with a 26-year-old customer before the latter asked him to leave.

After being escorted out of the store, the 63-year-old man, who is believed to be homeless and lives out of his blue Honda Odyssey parked nearby, came back with his weapon and shot the 26-year-old once in the stomach. He then turned his gun on the clerk inside the store, but lowered it after spotting the Plexiglas barrier at the counter.

Off-duty police officer Jason Maharaj, who was inside the deli at the time, saw the commotion and tackled the suspect himself. According to police, Maharaj wrestled the gun away from the suspect and held him until on-duty police arrived at the scene. The police identified Maharaj as from the 77 Precinct.

The police also found that moments before the shooting, the suspect walked into another store across the street to talk to a clerk there. The clerk, Chris Hanlon, said the man came in and asked him to call 911. “He seemed like he was in the middle of a medical emergency,” said Hanlon. “He then just walked away,” he added, saying after he had left, he heard a crash and called 911.

The police took the gunman into custody and recovered a Colt .45 handgun at the scene. Witnesses said the shooter had been harassing several merchants in the area. “He was definitely homeless,” said one of the merchants. “He lives in the minivan parked over there,” he added.

Meanwhile, the medics took the victim to Jamaica Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He is now in stable condition. Charges against the shooter are pending as of Monday night.