The man shot dead inside a Bronx pharmacy Thursday afternoon during an attempted robbery has been identified by senior police officials as Los Angeles-based drill rapper Avanti Frowner.
The 27-year-old man was reportedly in the area scouting music venues with a friend before Frowner stopped by Amazing Pharmacy on East Tremont Avenue around 2 p.m., two senior police officials said.
His friend told investigators that Frowner paid a visit to the store to pickup eye drops after a visit to a local eye doctor, officials said. It was then that the duo were approached by a group of men trying to sell marijuana.
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The sellers were part of four men, who when speaking with Frowner outside the pharmacy, allegedly began to rob the man of his gold chain, wallet and phone. The rapper moved inside the store, but was followed in by the group.
One of the men pulled out a gun, firing four or five times, a pharmacy employee told News 4. Some of the employees ran to the basement, she added, while she and others hid behind the pharmacy counter.
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Frowner was shot multiple times in the chest and pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, police said.
Before the victim moved inside, the employee said there was some sort of fight outside the store, and she believes Frowner was trying to save himself.
"They look like they fighting or arguing, I don't know," said the employee, who did not wish to be identified. "I saw that one of them had a gun."
That's when she began to panic, she said.
"I went back there to the pharmacist screaming 'We have to move, have to move, because he have a gun, he have a gun!'" said the worker.
The worker said she heard man begging for his life.
"He said 'Please, please we can talk, we can talk," according to the worker.
According to the preliminary investigation, four suspects fled the scene on foot. Three were last seen wearing white shorts and black shirts. One had on orange shorts and a Yankees hat, police said.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
