Police on Saturday said they are searching for a car linked to a deadly drive-by shooting in Brooklyn earlier this month.
A black 2016 Chrysler four-door sedan, with license plate number LAL7188, was involved in the Dec. 2, early-morning drive-by killing of Frankley Duran, 36, according to cops.
Duran was closing the front security gate of Room 1Hundred restaurant, where he worked, on Jamaica Ave. near New Jersey Ave., in East New York, at 12:09 a.m., when an unknown occupant of the sedan fired multiple gunshots at the victim, hitting Duran in the back of the head, police said.
After a fight had broken out an hour earlier, workers were shutting down the restaurant and ushering out patrons, when shots suddenly rang out from the passing black car. The gunman allegedly had gotten into an argument about his bill, which prompted a fight to break out, according to police and a police source.
“The gates were already down. He went out to put on the locks,” a restaurant worker who identified himself as Duane, who was there at the time of the shooting, said. “Someone from across the street shot him. Half an hour before, there was an argument with the bill. We don’t know if it was related.”
The restaurant worker, though, said the victim, Duran, “wasn’t involved in the argument at all.”
It wasn’t clear if he was the gunman’s intended target.
Medics rushed Duran to Brookdale University Hospital in critical condition.
Following the shooting, Duran’s family told the Daily News that doctors had declared Duran brain-dead, but they were waiting to run more tests before making any decisions. Duran, however, succumbed to his injuries two days later.
Duran immigrated to the Big Apple from the Dominican Republic and was described to be a “hard-working man” according to his father, Isidro Duran, 59.
“He came to New York for a better life,” his father said after the tragic shooting. “He was here to work and help his family back home. It’s hard to lose a good son.”
Two shell casings were recovered at the scene. In addition, a parked red Honda Accord was struck by three bullets.
