Tasti-D-Lite Owner Shot in Midtown

A Tasti-D-Lite owner was shot in the chest at 10PM last night as he was closing up his shop on Madison Avenue and East 37th Street. The owner is in critical condition at Bellevue and police believe the cause of the shooting was a botched robbery. The store owner had been on the phone with his wife during the incident, but then the phone was hung up; the Post reports that when the wife called again, she was told he was shot. The NY Times had particularly jarring description of the crime scene:

Relatives of the victim rushed to the store, a tidy shop with stuffed animals in the window and a neon sign and painted awning advertising Tasti D-Lite frozen dessert. Last night, the folding chair remained outside the shop with bloodied towels scattered beneath it and a blood trail leading back inside the store.

The shooting surprised neighboring residents and businesses, as Madison Avenue at 10PM is pretty busy; the timing of the shooting also made it the lead story on all the local news outlets, with some reporters taking particular gusto in reporting it (this morning a WNBC reporter said the suspect "pumped two shots" into the owner). The police are still looking for the suspect, and Gothamist half expects a brigade of preppy Murray Hill girls to try to suss out the suspect, because no one gets in between these ladies and their low-fat treats.