Two men were fatally shot during a botched robbery at a Mount Vernon cannabis and nicotine warehouse — and officials have arrested five men for their role in the murders, authorities said Wednesday.
Ilario Contreras, 23, Jerpi Diaz-Feliz, 25, Jhoan Diaz-Feliz, 23, Victor Jimenez, 35, and Joseph Perez, 26, were charged for their roles in the robbery gone wrong in the warehouse on S. Fifth Ave. around 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, according to prosecutors.
About a dozen robbers descended upon the warehouse that officials say peddled unlicensed weed and nicotine products. As employees inside were helping customers, the armed men backed them into the warehouse at gunpoint.
At least 10 people may have been inside when the shooting between crooks and store workers broke out, 1010WINS reported.
A warehouse employee and a member of the robbery crew were hit by bullets in the shootout, prosecutors said.
One of the victims died at the scene while the other died a short time later at Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital.
The names of the two dead men were not immediately released.
Two surviving crooks fled into the Bronx in a Honda minivan, police said. The border between the Bronx and Mount Vernon is just a few blocks away from the store.
The robbers crashed their minivan in the Belmont section of the Bronx near Fordham University and ran off.
One of the two men was taken into custody at East Fordham Road and Hughes Ave., officials said. The other got away.
The five men arrested Wednesday were charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to engage in drug trafficking, weapon possession and murder, prosecutors said.
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