Krystal Bayron-Nieves Burger King teen cashier shot dead in East Harlem robbery. Gunman makes off with $100. Victim was recent new hire.
A 19 year old teen girl was fatally gunned down during her shift at an East Harlem Burger King outlet during an early morning robbery this weekend.
Cops identified the victim as newly employed woman, Krystal Bayron-Nieves who was working the cash till at the time of her shooting death.
The armed robber entered the Manhattan fast food eaterie at 116th Street and Lexington Avenue in East Harlem around 1 a.m, Sunday morning, and pistol-whipped a male customer before punching a female manager in the face, NBCNY reported.
Bayron-Nieves, gave the robber cash from the drawer upon the robber’s demands. As the robber turned to leave they turned around and shot the teen in the torso according to the victim’s family.
The killer got away with just $100, the victim’s family said.
New hire feared working conditions
The teenager was taken to Metropolitan Hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later, cops said.
‘She didn’t deserve to be mowed down while working at a Burger King,’ a police source said according to the nypost.
Bayron-Nieves’ family said she had only been working at the fast-food eatery for three weeks and had already asked for better security and change to a day shift because she feared for her safety.
The victim wanted the changes ‘because she is only 19, and she has more than 50 homeless people sleeping in front of the store,’ her mother, Kristie Nieves, 36, said in Spanish through a translator.
Nieves is torn because she convinced her daughter to continue going to work.
‘[Kristal] say [Friday], ‘I don’t want to go. I’m scared,’’ the mother recalled. “I say, ‘You have to go and be responsible.’ At 10 p.m. I wake her up to go and tell her, ‘You have to go. You have to be responsible. You have to get a better life.’’
The mom says she feels guilty about waking her daughter up to go to work.
Police have released this video of an armed man who shot a #BurgerKing cashier last night during a robbery in East Harlem. The victim, 19 year old Kristal Bayron Nieves, has since died of her injuries @NYPDnews @CBSNewYork #nyc #eastharlem #nycgunviolence pic.twitter.com/EZkWJ19L3i
— Kiran Dhillon (@KiranDhillonTV) January 9, 2022
Killed over $100
The family says Bayron-Nieves had a young admirer who stopped by to see her at the restaurant almost nightly, always bringing her a flower. The young man was there when she was killed.
‘He told us he was there until her last breath,’ the victim’s mother said. ‘He tells us when he went and walk to the place that he always buy her a flower. He went back, and they open the door to this guy that was dressed like them, in all black.’
The victim’s family said Bayron-Nieves mistook the thief for a delivery man — before he slugged the restaurant manager and her young admirer, knocking him out.
Bayron-Nieves then gave the thief all the money in the register, which amounted to $100 in petty cash, the typical amount to start the next day.
‘So [the admirer] says that the guy turns around and he comes back and shot her,” the victim’s mother said. ‘That he turn around like he is going to leave, but he comes back and shoots her.
‘She’d done everything that he say,’ the mother said through the translator. ‘She give him the money and everything. That she didn’t even do nothing wrong.’
The robber, who fled the store, was described as a slim male who was wearing dark clothes and a black mask, cops said. Police were canvassing the scene for video.
Crime Stoppers offered a $3,500 for the killer’s capture, putting up wanted posters with a surveillance photo of the killer.
