IS DELI SLAY TIED TO LOCAL ROBBERIES?

Flowers and memorial items line the front of Sheepshead Bay bodega where worker was murdered Sunday. Neil S. Friedman Police from the Brooklyn South Robbery Squad have joined with an NYPD task force that includes homicide, robbery and gang units, to investigate similarities between Sunday night's murder of a deli worker in Sheepshead Bay and a string of armed robberies that have occurred in surrounding communities within the last couple of months.

There has been a rash of armed holdups of bodegas in southern Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Canarsie, Mill Basin, Marine Park and East Flatbush and extending into parts of Sheepshead Bay where the people responsible are said to be working in groups of up to five males. Police sources told the Canarsie Courier that, although there is a possibility Sunday's homicide could have been committed by one of these gangs, there are some modes of operation that appear to be slightly different. They would not divulge what the differences could be.

The latest incident was the only one where there was a homicide.

Ahmed Shaibi, 44, was killed Sunday when three bandits entered the store on Avenue R near East 29th Street shortly after 9 p.m. One of the thieves pulled out a gun while another stood watch and another started to go behind the counter to take money from the cash register when Shaibi started to wrestle with the gunman and yelled out, "Call 911! Call 911!"

The gun went off and the bodega worker fell to the floor, according to a fellow worker who had been in the back of the store with another worker when the incident occurred.

After the shooting, the trio fled in an unknown direction. It is not known whether they took any money.

Merchants in local areas told the Canarsie Courier that robberies have taken place in Canarsie, East Flatbush and Mill Basin for the past two months where the thieves would come into their store, pull out either a gun or knife and hold the proprietor while one of the accomplices either jumps over the counter or walks behind it and takes money from the cash register. In one night, the thieves were said to have robbed three stores within 20 minutes, although that report could not be corroborated.

Storeowners, who would not reveal their names, said they were threatened, but not injured in any of the cases. Once again, police would not confirm this.

A reward has been posted by Crime Stoppers for information on the homicide.

Anyone with information on any of the cases is asked to call the 69th Precinct Detective Squad at (718) 257-6215 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. Calls will be kept confidential.