Yesterday morning,a 21-year-old Pace student was fatally shot in the head in his 37th floor apartment at a luxury rental in the Financial District. The investigation is continuing but police say that Max Moreno was a "small-time pot-dealer" who was smoking pot with a couple when two men suddenly burst into the apartment and shot him after demanding money.
According to the Daily News, "A witness told police the suspects screamed, 'Give me the stuff! Give me the stuff!' When Moreno refused to give up any cash, the gunman pulled the trigger. 'He fires once and the safety is on, so it just clicks,' according to a police source. 'He fired again and the gun went off.'" The gunman and his associate left the apartment with a locked box and momentarily had a "confrontation in the stairwell with an off-duty member of the Erie County sheriff's department who was visiting someone in the building" and there was a struggle for the gun.
The couple fled, and police are looking into whether they set him up to be killed. Cops are also hoping surveillance video will help, but one resident of the apartment building, 2 Gold Street, told the Post, "People who don't live here walk in all the time." Another told WPIX 11, "We heard that someone was shot in the face, and we're pretty freaked out about it. We pay $4000 a month to live here, and people are getting murdered... so now we're looking for somewhere else to live."
Moreno's fellow Pace students had a vigil for him last night. A mourner remembered him, "He was an absolutely great kid. I don’t know one person who has anything bad to say about him."
