Vahidipour Rahmatollah
A sketch of the suspect in the pair of murders this summer that may be linked to last night’s slaying. (
)
A Great Neck man was shot dead inside of his Brooklyn boutique last night — and cops linked the murder to a pair of similar slayings that could be connected by the addresses of the murder scenes, sources said.
Ballistics tests matched in the three killings – all of which occurred in Brooklyn shops — as did a common digit 8 in the addresses of the stores, the sources said.
“Right now they [the addresses] all have eights, which is a similarity,” a law enforcement source told the Post. “It’s in the beginning stages of the investigation. It might have no meaning at all.”
Vahidipour Rahmatollah, 78, was found the back of She She Boutique with two gunshot wounds to the head and one to the torso, sources said.
The Iranian shopkeeper was shot behind the counter and dragged into the back where the killer covered his body with clothes, the sources added.
“He was in the middle of the store on the right near the corner. You could see the blood trail from the cash register which is in the front of the store,” said a clerk at a neighboring store.
“He was lying on his belly. Blood was on the floor and all around his head.”
Grieving relatives mourned the loss of the hardworking father and grandfather.
“He never had in his whole life one enemy, he didn’t have, he was a very kind man,” said his sobbing wife, Naima Rahmatollan, who said that today he was supposed to be at his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah.
His daughter said that they began to worry when Rahmatollah didn’t come home at his usual time.
“He usually comes home around 9, 9:30, he didn’t show up 10, 10:30 so we called the police,” said Yasmin Rahmatollan. “A half hour later detectives came and I got the picture he was dead. It was so shocking, and it was one of the worst nights of my life.”
Detectives were seen entering their home this afternoon.
The shell casings recovered at the crime scene yesterday matched those used at two other murders of Brooklyn store owners.
Cops had been investigating whether the killer was obsessed with the numbers 1, 7 and 8.
On July 6, store owner Mohammed Gebeli, 65 was found shot to death at his clothing store at 7718 Fifth Ave. On Aug. 2, police found Isaac Kadare, 59, dead in his Bensonhurst store at 1877 86th St.
The address of yesterday’s killing also included the number 8 — 836 Flatbush Ave.
Cash was taken in the first two killings, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether anything was stolen in last night’s slaying.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger, Georgett Roberts and Wilson Dizard