A shopkeeper has gone viral on social media after he was pictured cleaning up the blood outside his New York shop following a homicide.
The 42-year-old manager, from the city’s Lower East Side, said he was left cleaning up the remnants of the crime scene after asking the NYPD to clean it up.
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The viral picture, which was shared on Twitter on July 11 and now has 99,000 views, shows Mohammad, manager of Rivington Exotics, sweeping blood and other materials off the sidewalk in front of his shop. The yellow crime scene tape can also be seen partially attached to a pole.
One Twitter user tweeted: "Just madness. I've gone to this smoke shop before when I was in NY last summer. So sad."
"Unbelievable," another person reacted.
While a third complained: "Absolutely and completely awful especially considering he tried helping this man."
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The merchant said he sat with the victim, Eliahs Brazoban, 18, for 15 minutes while he lay bleeding on the sidewalk. The young man had been shot in the neck in front of Mohammad’s shop just after midnight on June 25.
After being transported to New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, Brazoban was pronounced dead. It is currently unclear whether it was a targeted attack and there have been no arrests in his killing.
Mohammad, who only provided his first name to press, says he was left cleaning up the crime scene which included blood-soaked rags, bandages and towels that were all used to try and safe Brazoban’s life.
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Mohammad, who spoke about the ordeal with the New York Post, said: “I never, ever thought I’d be cleaning up a crime scene.
“I asked the NYPD, ‘Are you going to come clean it?’ And they told me, ‘No, that’s not our job,’
“I was shocked. I was waiting all night for them to come and clean it. I waited for eight hours.”
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It is the property owner’s responsibility to clean up the scene after a crime has been committed on their property according to law.
A page on the NYPD’s website on trauma scene clean-ups states: “Property owners are responsible for cleaning up a trauma scene on their property. If the trauma scene is on private property, such as a residential or commercial building, the owner or landlord must arrange for the trauma scene to be cleaned up.”
Mohammad continued: “We’re on the Lower East Side, man. Things are just getting too crazy.
“That just goes to show that this could happen anywhere. I thought this was a safe place.”
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UNILAD has contacted the NYPD for comment.
Gregory Robinson