WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, Manhattan (WABC) — In a twist, the 37-year-old man shot and critically injured while dining at a Washington Heights fish restaurant was actually targeted in a love triangle, prosecutors say.
An investigation into the December 6 incident revealed the suspected gunman held up the cashier to make it look like a holdup.
The shocking encounter was caught on surveillance video.
Heiton Camacho-Bonilla, who was arrested Saturday, “attempted to assassinate the victim based on jealousy, and tried to throw investigators off his scent by pretending it was a robbery,” prosecutors said in court.
This act was premeditated, deliberate, callous, and it is by sheer luck that the victim is alive, albeit with significant injuries and pain.
A.D.A. Elizabeth Barry, in court filing
Camacho-Bonilla and the mother of his child had been separated for approximately eight months.
Prosecutors say he be “became obsessed” after she had “had a brief romantic fling several months ago” with the victim, Harrison Ferreiras.
Wearing all black clothing, gloves, a hood, a hat, and a black face mask, Camacho-Bonilla went to Seafood King Fish Market in Washington Heights to find his victim.
He demanded that the female employee give him the cash from the register and hand over her cell phone to him to make it look like he was staging a robbery.
But prosecutors said his target all along was Ferreiras.
After ordering the employee behind the counter, Camacho-Bonilla “put the gun to the back of the victim’s head and pulled the trigger.”
Ferreiras was shot in the side of the face and underwent surgery at the hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
“This act was premeditated, deliberate, callous, and it is by sheer luck that the victim is alive, albeit with significant injuries and pain,” prosecutors told the judge, who denied bail at Camacho-Bonilla’s arraignment earlier this week.
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Anthony Johnson has the latest details.
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