BNC Merchandise, the store where Bubacarr Camara was killed last Thursday is now the site of a growing memorial, with flowers, notes and even a coconut. Camara, a 26-year-old who had just moved to the Bronx from Gambia 10 months ago, was apparently beaten to death in the store on Amsterdam between 104th and 105th streets in what police believe was a botched robbery attempt.
Camara had a wife and young son at home in Gambia and had come to the U.S. to earn money at his family’s store, according to a report in the Times. He was known as a generous and loving young man and a fantastic soccer player.
The family would often allow customers to take items like candy or shirts on credit if the customers didn’t have enough money to pay, said Miriam, who works at a taxi dispatch service a couple of doors down. “It’s so sad,” she said. “They just were trying to make an honest living.”
“You was like my brother to me,” read one note at the memorial site.
The three men wanted in connection with his death have not yet been apprehended, although police have offered a reward and released surveillance images. A story in the New York Press notes that two of the men wanted for Camara’s homicide may have been involved in another robbery in Harlem.
“Police believe the people who killed a shopkeeper at an Amsterdam Avenue T-shirt shop during a robbery attempt Thursday afternoon could also have robbed a similar store at gunpoint in Harlem early Tuesday morning.
Two of three men pictured in surveillance footage taken around the time of Thursday’s attempted robbery at BNC General Merchandise, on Amsterdam between 104th and 105th streets, bear a “striking resemblance” to suspects in a robbery on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, a police source said. Although one shot was fired during the Harlem robbery, according to a police wanted poster, police did not say whether anyone was hit.”
This is heartbreaking, and I am disgusted at the creeps who took an honest life. I hope they are apprehended and locked up for a very long time. Those with such a callous disrespect for life deserve to never see the light of day again.
Is there a way to set up a fund for his wife and child in Gambia?
Yes Lisa & Erica & everybody. What can we do to help the family? GoFundMe.com or something else? Let’s do this!
It is even more heartbreaking to learn that he had a family waiting for him so far away. Money won’t bring him back, but I too would like to do something to help his family.
i keep coming back to see whether anyone has any idea about how to do this. I don’t know how we would even find his family. Is there someone in the neighborhood that know the family that owns the store who could ask at a time when it would not be inappropriate?
Hello everybody. I live right on w 104th right on the corne from the store. I may be able to find out how to contact he’s family.. Im in on this, lets help he”s wife and little son!!
take care people
Thank you, please let us know!
is a gofundme account for his family?
Thanks, Crissy, let us know.
any new info? This sad story has stuck with me and I’d like to help. I’m sure others would too.
Echoing Maria, is there any way to donate to this man’s family in Gambia?
This is so awful, and it’s remarkable how many more condolence comments on this site have gone out to Molly the dog (not that there’s anything wrong with feeling bad about Molly, and presumably the explanation for the disparity is that so many more people have personally lost a pet than had a loved one murdered …)
Any word on the gofundme page? I live a block away and not surprisingly the store has been closed since the murder so not sure if anyone from the family has been contacted.
I want to be involved in the gofundme thing too..going to try to contact family (liked in phone book). I’ll keep you all posted.
Hello everyone-I would like to start a gofundme for Mr. Camara’s family. I just tried a few numbers from phonebook to no avail of yet. Anyone know how to contact the family?
hello Isabella. Yes please contact me:
krismaia@yahoo.com
Hello everybody.
I have good news. They just reopened the store today. I’ll go there and ask for a contact number or email to reach them.