A teenage girl who was just 10 when her father was gunned down in front of her inside a Manhattan bodega is still struggling to cope with his senseless caught-on-camera murder as a judge prepares to sentence her dad’s killer, the girl’s grandmother told the Daily News.
Victim Tykeem Berry, 30, had just picked up his daughter, Tori, from school and was grabbing snacks at the 144 Deli-Grocery in Inwood on Dec. 15, 2022, when Joseph Morros shot him to death over a stare.
“She was standing in the store watching,” Berry’s mother, 60-year-old Robin Frazier, said of her granddaughter. “The whole world turned upside down to see her father murdered in front of her.”
On Wednesday, it was Frazier’s turn to watch, this time from the gallery of a Manhattan courtroom, as a jury found Morros, 31, guilty of murder for her son’s killing.
The defendant, she said, “had no remorse,” either for the man he killed, or for the victim’s little girl, now 13, who was forced to grow up without a father.
“The hurt will always stay. Always,” Frazier said. “I’m just glad he’s off the street.”
bodega
Sam Costanza for New York Daily News Police investigate after Tykeem Berry was shot inside a deli at 144 Nagle Ave in Manhattan on December 15, 2022. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News)
Berry routinely stopped at the Nagle Ave. deli near Thayer St. to grab after-school snacks for his daughter, his mother said.
It was there that Berry caught Morros staring at him and the pair began to argue about 4:05 p.m., former NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said following the 2022 shooting.
Just before the killing, which was recorded on the store’s surveillance camera, Morros can be seen leaving the store before charging back in with his weapon drawn and firing on the victim. Essig said.
A vendor working nearby recounted the deadly showdown.
“The two young guys were arguing inside the grocery. The guy with the pistol said, ‘Come out. Come outside. Step outside.’ But he wouldn’t,” said Nelson Trinidad, 28, who sold fruit and vegetables from a van on Nagle Ave. “So he went back in and they struggled. He shot him right in the chest. One time.”
Frazier said her son knew Morros was armed and was trying to move his daughter to safety when he was shot.
“He knew there was going to (be a shooting),” the victim’s mother said. “He knew his daughter was in there. He didn’t want that man to shoot in that store and hurt and kill somebody.”
bodegashoot
Obtained by Daily News Video footage captured the moments leading up to the fatal shooting in a deli on Nagle Ave in Washington Heights on Dec 15, 2022. (Obtained by Daily News)
Berry was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he died about a half hour later, cops said.
“It’s been hard (on his daughter) because her father and her was really, really close,” Frazier said. “It was always them together.”
In addition to his daughter, Berry has a son who’s now 10 years old, according to his mother.
“He (was) building his life at seeing a future for his kids, seeing a future for his nieces and nephews because at the end of the day, he’s always about family,” Frazier said.
Frazier said her son was preparing for Christmas when he was killed.
“His last words were, ‘Oh my god, I was shot! Call 911!” the victim’s mother said. “That was his last words.”
Morros was arrested four days after Berry was killed. He has 10 prior arrests, two of them for weapons possession, police said.
Frazier said she’ll be back in the courtroom for Morros’ sentencing on Oct. 2.
“I’m hoping they give him life because I can’t believe that this went on for four years and it’s obvious,” Frazier said. “You seen him on video, you seen him with the weapon, and he had no remorse.”
“You knew what you was doing because you walked around with a gun,” she added, as if she was addressing Morros. “You was already ready to do what you wanted to do.”