The masked suspect who fatally shot a beloved barber while trying to steal his handmade Miami Cuban bracelet outside a Queens strip club ran off empty-handed, but left those who knew the victim with an unfathomable hole in their hearts.
“I just want to know the truth about what happened,” said Edwin Cabrera, victim Hector Figuereo’s childhood friend and the owner of Fresh on 4th Barbershop in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where Hector worked.
Figuereo, 45, was killed three days before his birthday this Sunday, Cabrera noted.
“It makes no sense,” he told the Daily News.
When his mother identified Hector’s body at the hospital, she had a “mini heart attack” and needed to be admitted to the hospital herself, Cabrera said.
“Now she don’t have nobody,” he said mournfully.
Figuereo was shot in the back by a robber who approached him from behind and demanded his bracelet outside Riviera Gentleman’s Club on Steinway St. near 34th Ave. in Astoria about 3:50 a.m. on Thursday, according to police.
Medics rushed Figuereo to Elmhurst Hospital, where he died.
After shooting Figuereo, the gunman, who was wearing a hooded green Nike Tech sweatsuit, ran off empty-handed and fled north on 37th St. in a white Mercedes-Benz SUV, police said.
Cops on Friday released surveillance footage of the hooded suspect, in the hopes someone recognizes him.
Figuereo lived in Sunset Park with his mother, who he had been caring for ever since his father died from cancer a few years ago, friends said.
On the night of the murder, Figuereo was out celebrating the birthday of a mutual friend, according to Cabrera. The bracelet the gunman tried to snatch was a handmade Miami Cuban link bracelet that Figuereo wore frequently, he said.
“There’s a thousand people in (clubs) with Cuban link chains,” he said, noting that because the bracelet was handmade it was “very valuable.”
“It’s a famous link that a lot of people look at, and they like it,” he said. “You can tell from a mile away.”
While he enjoyed wearing the bracelet, Figuereo “was never flashy” when he went out, Cabrera said.
“We used to make fun of him,” his friend recalled. “How you wearing things from 1999? And he was like, this is how I do so (people) don’t think I got things.”
Cabrera last saw his friend just hours before he was murdered. “He was cutting hair. Regular normal day,” he recalled.
When a detective told him the next day that Figuereo was dead, he didn’t believe it.
“Once he told me that, I started bawling,” he said. “There’s no way that this happened!”
“Everybody loved him,” he said.
Hundreds of Figuereo’s friends and customers showed up at the Sunset Park barbershop Thursday night to pay respects to the slain hairstylist.
“This place was packed,” Cabrera recalled. “No lie.”
”We did a lighting for him,” he said. “Everybody was having an emotional, good time.”
“(He was a) very good person. Family person,” added a neighbor who would only identify himself as Harvey, 59. “He stepped up to the plate to take care of (his mother).”
The outpouring of grief and love for Figuereo continued on social media, with many friends posting heartfelt tributes.
“To know that someone I cared about so deeply was taken from this world through such a senseless act is heartbreaking,” Figuereo’s longtime pal, Sam Lebron, wrote in a tribute posted to Facebook.
“His presence touched more people than he probably ever realized. As a barber, he had a way of connecting with people-not just through his craft, but through the conversations, friendships, and relationships built in the chair,” Lebron continued. “I’m struggling to accept that I’ll never get to see him, talk to him, laugh with him, or simply know that he’s out there doing what he loved.”
Another friend, Lizette Gonzalez-Ruiz, described Figuereo as “kind, genuine, and someone I will always remember with love,” in a Facebook post.
The strip club’s manager, who gave his name as Diego, told The News Thursday that he was not convinced the slaying stemmed from a simple crime of opportunity because the gunman had waited for the victim inside the club.
“The way they just came in and were waiting for somebody like that, it has to be very personal,” the manager said.
Surveillance images released by police show the gunman aiming his weapon as well as sitting outside the club, looking at his phone.
Anyone with information about the slaying or the suspect is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.