A new employee sweeping the sidewalk outside a Harlem supermarket was beaten to death with a wooden plank by a homeless man, cops and distraught colleagues said Tuesday.
Bernardo Gonzalez Perez, 63, was excited he had just cashed his paycheck when he clashed with a homeless man around noon June 7 outside Food Universe on W. 138th St. near Broadway, police said.
He’d only been working the new job for a couple of weeks.
As their quarrel escalated, Carlos Ramirez, 48, picked up a “large plank of wood” and hit Gonzalez Perez “in the head several times” with it, leaving the older man with a massive head injury, according to the criminal complaint against the suspect.
Gonzalez Perez suffered several cuts and bruises to the head during the attack and “was unable to communicate as he kept losing consciousness,” court papers say.
Medics rushed Gonzalez Perez to Mount Sinai Morningside, where he died four days later. He lived near St. James Park in the Bronx, according to cops.
Ramirez ran off after the attack but was tracked down and grabbed by responding cops that same day.
Gonzalez Perez quickly built a bond with his co-workers in the short time he was there.
“I had spoken to him right before all this happened,” said Nathalie Rodriguez, 26. “I was in the back room and he had come to get hand gloves just 15 minutes before he was attacked.”
A security camera outside the store captured the disturbing assault. A man arguing with Gonzalez Perez can be seen holding a long wooden plank. He hits Gonzalez Perez once and keeps the plank as pedestrians walk by.
After Gonzalez Perez falls on the ground, the man picks up the plank again and hits Gonzalez Perez one more time. Gonzalez Perez’ broom lay on the ground beside him.
“People start pouring in the store to get help,” Rodriguez said. ”The guy who hit him seemed drunk. He was probably high on something because he was laughing and making fun of him while he was lying almost unconscious on the floor.”
“I grabbed some alcohol from the store for Gonzalez Perez to smell to keep him awake because his eyes were shutting,” Rodriguez added. “The attacker stood there until the time police came. He kept the wooden log near the tree. The cops took it with them because it had blood stains.”
Pamela Santana, 26, the store’s assistant manager, said she rushed outside as soon as she heard the commotion.
“I don’t think they argued,” she said. “The attacked did not seem mentally unstable because he was making statements like, ‘You deserve it.’”
The 5-foot-5 homeless man was charged with felony assault and ordered held on $1 million bail.
The city Medical Examiner on July 13 deemed the death a homicide.
Charges against Ramirez are expected to be upgraded at his next court appearance on July 27, police sources said.
