One fatally shot in NYC smoke shop ‘robbery gone bad’
One person was killed during a “robbery gone bad” inside a Queens smoke shop, police said.
The deadly episode unfolded inside the Plug Smoke Shop, a CBD and THC joint at 109-27 Jamaica Ave. shortly after noon on Saturday, cops said.
Police responding to a call of shots fired found a 20-year-old worker with a gunshot blast in his chest, the NYPD said.
Daryus Clarke of South Jamaica was rushed to Jamaica Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
There have been no arrests.
Police are looking for three suspects who took off in a white Toyota, possibly with Florida plates.
“It’s the same story. They are getting robbed because they do a cash business, and they have drugs, it’s a two-for-one,” said one weary Queens cop.
“Also, there are over 1,200 [smoke shops] in the city. They are in every neighborhood, good and bad.”
CBD tubes were scattered outside the smoke shop, possible evidence of what the robbers dropped from their heist of CBD cartridges and other drug paraphernalia.
The killing is just the latest in a surge of shootings involving city smoke shops.
Last month, a man was fatally shot at a Harlem smoke shop near the busy intersection at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue, police and sources said.
Dramatic surveillance footage captured the aftermath of the killing at Level Up Exotics — showing the victim stumbling across the street and collapsing into a pool of blood.
The spike in smoke shop violence had cops beefing up patrols to deal with what has become a “citywide problem,” The Post previously reported.
For weeks, police in every precinct were instructed to make a list of smoke shops in their areas and give them “special attention,” sources said.
Said one prescient Queens cop at the time: “The problem is you have to keep changing the list because new shops turn up overnight.
“It is a double win for criminals, they get both cash and marijuana.”
“You gotta be kidding me. This needs to stop. Right now, the city is out of control, and we need to take our city back,” said community activist Fernando Mateo, who has been speaking out on behalf of city bodega owners ambushed by assailants.
