Cops are questioning a person of interest in the serial killings of three Brooklyn shopkeepers, law enforcement sources told the Post.
The mustachioed man seen carrying a duffel bag near the scene of the latest killing in Flatbush is being interviewed by investigators at the 67th precinct, the sources said.
The unidentified man was seen near the scene of Friday’s murder of Rahmatollah Vahidipour, 78, who was closing up his shop just after 7 pm when he was shot three times.
Casings left at the scene were matched by ballistics tests to two other killings on July 6 and Aug. 2 that were committed with the same .22-caliber handgun.
A man that resembled “Duffel Bag” was also spotted on grainy surveillance footage near the scene of the shooting of Bensonhurst store owner Isaac Kadare, 59, sources have said — but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday dismissed the similarity.
“No, that is not the case,” Kelly said. “He was in the vicinity … roughly at the time we believe the [latest] murder took place.”
Cops have also ruled out a man who was identified as a person of interest in the shooting of Kadare.
”It is no longer relevant,” said Kelly. “ That individual washed out again. … He’s not a subject. He’s a person we simply wanted to speak to.”
Each of the three murders occurred while the lone business owner was closing up shop and all three bodies were also covered when they were discovered, cops said.
“It may be significant, it may not, but in all three cases, the victim’s head was covered either by cardboard or clothing of some sort,” said Kelly.
Mohamed Gebeli, 65, was shot to death on July 6 in his Bay Ridge clothing store and Kadare was stabbed in the neck and shot in the head roughly one month later at his Bensonhurst 99 cent store.
Employees of stores near the latest Flatbush killing are being told by cops to use security cameras and to not close up shop alone.