Fatal NYC shooting on luxury store-lined block could have been botched robbery: sources
A sneaker store owner and dad of one was fatally shot early Tuesday on a SoHo block lined with posh shops — during what appeared to have been a botched robbery, cops and sources said.
Javier Osorio Mejia, 31, was blasted in the right thigh on Greene Street near Broome Street — just outside the men’s luxury fashion store Stone Island — around 5:15 a.m., police sources and the victim’s friends said.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Investigators believe he could have been the victim of a mugging gone bad, according to police sources.
Osorio Mejia was from Bayonne, New Jersey, according to the sources.
His white luxury Range Rover could be seen at the taped-off crime scene.
A group of his grief-stricken pals identified him as a successful shoe reseller on the cusp of signing a lease on a new Big Apple store.
“He was a great guy. He wasn’t involved in no crazy s—t to get him shot,” a friend who only gave his first name, Andre, told The Post Tuesday afternoon.
“He wasn’t involved in no crazy scams or drugs,” Andre added.
“He sold sneakers and clothing,” he said, noting Osorio Mejia’s other store, Vault 134, on Orchard Street, recently closed.
“It’s just senseless.”
Andre said Osorio Mejia was a doting dad to a 2-year-old girl.
“Great father. He was just at the Jersey Shore celebrating his baby’s birthday,” the pal said.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing, cops said hours after the deadly gunfire.
