DELI 'ANGEL'
Store where owner was killed reopened by grieving family
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

It was a family affair yesterday as close friends and relatives of Fidelina A. Claros re-opened the slain deli owner's store in the Jersey City Heights.

"It's hard for us because we know that we're not going to see Fidelina again," said Mario Avellar, Claros's longtime companion.

"She's gone forever, but she would have liked the show to go on because this was her baby, this was her love," Avellar added.

Claros, 47, a native of El Salvador and a Roselle resident, was shot once in the back and twice in the head during the Oct. 30 robbery of her deli, G&P Deli & Grocery, on Webster Avenue and Ferry Street.

The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office has released a sketch of a getaway driver, but the shooter and the driver are still at large.

Avellar - accompanied yesterday by Claros's sister Susana, her brother Nelson, and sister-in-law Concepcion - said the family will adjust their schedules to run the store, at least until the business is sold.

But in light of Fidelina being shot when she was alone, no one will be permitted to work solo, family members said.

"We would rather close the doors than have someone here alone," Avellar said. "As you know, they haven't caught the animal who killed Fidelina. The animal might come back."

Susana Claros said she felt her sister's presence yesterday.

"I am here with her," said Susana Claros, a North Bergen resident. "She is an angel for me now."

Nancy Nunez, a regular at the deli, was near tears yesterday.

"This is very hard," said Nunez, who said she stopped by the store "10 times a day" for cigarettes, lottery tickets or just to chat. "She was a businesswoman, but she wasn't here to make money."

A former home health aide in West New York, Fidelina Claros opened her deli five years ago. She is survived by three children - Guillermo Herrera, 21, Brian Herrera, 19, and Johanna Herrera, 17.

Anyone with information about the murder is asked to call Hudson County homicide investigators at (201) 915-1345.

Mourners recall deli owner fondly
Friday, November 03, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE AND MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

UNION CITY - Dozens of family members and friends streamed in and out of Jorge Rivera Funeral Home yesterday to view and pay respects to Fidelina A. Claros, 47, a Jersey City deli owner gunned down in her Webster Avenue shop on Monday during an apparent robbery.

Mourners recalled Claros, a divorced mother of three, as the main organizer of family get-togethers, and as a benevolent deli owner.

"I was always in there buying (New Jersey Lottery) scratch-off tickets," said Carmen Gordills, a customer for the past five years. "She (Claros) was always saying 'You're going to win.' She was a doll."

Claros, who lived in Roselle, never allowed a holiday or birthday to pass without organizing a party, said Nelson Claros, the eldest of Claros's five surviving siblings.

"She would say 'We have to do something,' and she'd do it," said Nelson. "She was beautiful."

Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy also attended the seven-hour wake. Healy, who lives just a couple blocks away from the store and said he stopped in at least once a month, remembered her as "hardworking, personable, and outgoing."

The mayor also expressed confidence that his police department and the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office would soon capture the gunman who shot Claros three times - twice in the head, and once in the back - as well as his getaway driver.

Homicide detectives spent the day searching for the getaway car on security video secured from Jersey City police closed circuit TV cameras and from NJ Transit security video cameras at nearby Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stations, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

Investigators have also reached out to area businesses with security cameras and are reviewing those, but have yet to find a car matching the description of the getaway car.

"Needless to say, there have been no arrests made as of yet and we still are requesting the public's help in this investigation," DeFazio said.

Claros's body, clad yesterday in a black dress with her hand clasped around a red rose, is being flown today to her hometown, Morazan, El Salvador, where a funeral service will be held Saturday night.

Claros's three children, Guillermo Herrera, 21, Brian Herrera, 19 and Johanna Herrera, 17, mingled with the crowd yesterday.

"I'm just trying to be strong," Brian Herrera said. "I know she's up there looking down on me."

Anyone with information on the murder is asked to call the Prosecutor's Office Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.

Deli killer is focus of manhunt
Thursday, November 02, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

As the manhunt continues for the man who murdered a woman while robbing her Jersey City Heights deli Monday, police are offering tips on how to make stores safer.

"The law enforcement community in Hudson County is working feverishly on this tragic case," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday. "We are following leads and various law enforcement agencies are involved."

Fidelina A. Claros, 47, of Roselle, was shot once in the back and twice in the head during the robbery of her G&P Deli & Grocery on Webster Avenue and Ferry Street, officials said.

Homicide investigators are reviewing Jersey City Police Department closed circuit TV video that may have captured images of the getaway car as it fled, DeFazio said. There are no CCTV cameras at the corner where the deli is located, but the car may have passed others, DeFazio said.

"We have reason to believe that the car was parked where it was because of the knowledge of the driver and the planned escape route," said DeFazio, adding that the driver may have used the nearby "cut" to Hoboken, via Ravine Avenue.

Investigators have contacted NJ Transit Police to get video footage from security cameras at the Hoboken Light Rail Station with the hope it captured images of the car. They are also seeking video from the Ninth Street/Congress Street Light Rail Station based on the chance the car turned north on Palisade Avenue after fleeing east on Ferry Street, DeFazio said.

Meanwhile, Capt. Hugh Donaghue advised store owners to call the Jersey City Police Department Community Relations Unit at (201) 547-5682 to arrange for a security inspection by a police officer.

He also advised store owners to keep their windows clear of signs and merchandise, so people on the street can see inside if something is amiss. More tips are available at the department's Web site, www.njjcpd.org.

Anyone with information on the murder is asked to call homicide investigators at (201) 915-1345.

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It indeed doesn't. Anyone who argues otherwise just hasn't done the homework. As for the "inefficiencies" argument--easy out. I guess for cleaning up those inefficiencies, we'll just cut to the chase, speed up the legal process and kill 'em faster.

I've sworn off these political debates, but I just can't tolerate quick, unsubstantiated statements against "liberals". It totally lacks the point of dialogue!

lol, I have only 1 account here. Anyway, you sure know how to go to the extreme. People like you need to wake up. I'm not talking about everyone on death row, but there is no business having serial murderers or others with undeniable evidence languishing in jail. Plus those other people aren't "innocent" they still usually have prior infractions against humanity.

[quote]
GrovePath wrote:
Bill

I'm all for the death penalty against innocents -- Can we start with you and your many old and new JClist personas?

Bill

I'm all for the death penalty against innocents -- Can we start with you and your many old and new JClist personas?

Quote:

$1G taken in 3rd grocery holdup Monday
Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Two gunmen wearing ski masks held up a Randolph Avenue grocery store and made away with $1,000 Monday evening, the same day two robberies elsewhere in Jersey City left one deli worker pistol-whipped and another dead.

Five men were menaced at gunpoint during the Randolph Avenue heist, which took place around 8 p.m., police said yesterday.

According to police reports, two men wearing green ski masks, black jackets and jeans, and gloves with the fingertips cut off, burst into the grocery store, each brandishing a black semiautomatic pistol.

One robber, about 5-foot-10 and of slim build, shoved a customer into a food rack, then went behind the counter and removed $300 from the cash register and $700 from a cigar box.

Meanwhile, his partner, about 6-foot-2, stood by the door aiming his gun at the owner and four customers present.

==========================

'COLD-BLOODED' KILLER HAD HELP
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
By ALI WINSTON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Authorities are calling the shooting death of Fidelina Claros a "cold-blooded" murder, and, contrary to previous reports, now say she was shot three times - twice in the head and once in the back.

"The fact that she was shot three times eliminates any possibility of accidental discharge," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday. "This was completely gratuitous, wanton violence."

Investigators initially said she'd been shot once. An autopsy revealed the additional wounds, DeFazio said.

He added that one of the shots was "in the ear."

Claros, the owner of G&P Deli & Grocery at the corner of Webster Avenue and Ferry Street in the Jersey City Heights, was shot to death during a robbery Monday afternoon. Based on shell casings recovered at the scene, investigators believe the weapon used was a .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol, DeFazio said. Cash was taken from the New Jersey State Lottery till as well as the cash register, police reports said.

"This looks like a straight hold-up that went tragically wrong," DeFazio said.

DeFazio also released additional information yesterday about how police were alerted to the Monday afternoon shooting.

A customer walked into the deli as another man - suspected to be the shooter - was walking out, DeFazio said.

The customer saw Claros's bloody body behind the counter, ran back outside and started yelling for help; a Jersey City employee driving past pulled over, went into the deli and saw Claros himself, then called 911 at 12:50 p.m., DeFazio said. He said police responded within minutes, but Claros was already dead.

Though the G&P was equipped with security cameras, DeFazio would only state that "we are continuing our research in that area."

In addition, DeFazio said a witness who came forward yesterday morning because "his memory was jogged by the coverage of events" said he saw a man believed to be the shooter fleeing east on Ferry Street in a dark-colored, older model compact car - possibly a Nissan Maxima - driven by another man.

The car had been seen idling on the north side of Ferry between Webster and New York avenues during the holdup.

Witnesses described the driver as a thin man, approximately 30 years old, with a mustache, wearing a multi-colored flannel shirt and a black cap. The shooter appeared to be a man in his 30s, of medium build, around 5-foot-10 with close cropped hair, wearing a blue jacket with matching pants that might be part of a work uniform, DeFazio said.

DeFazio also said that investigators did not think the shooter is from the Heights, but they do think he is from Hudson County.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.

========================
Two Men Wanted In Jersey City Grocery Store Murder
Image

Jay Dow CBS Reporter

(CBS) NEW YORK Fidelina Claros was married with three children, and they were the center of her world. "She was a very nice person. I loved her so much," her son Brian Herrera said, just a day after his mother was gunned down during a robbery at the G&P grocery store and deli she owned.

CBS 2 News has learned the robbery and murder was a two man job. Investigators say one dark-skinned adult male dressed in a blue outfit shot Claros twice in the head and once in the torso.

He made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, and then hopped in a getaway car driven by an unidentified accomplice.

========================
Healy: Blood on Bush's hands
Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Enraged about the proliferation of illegal handguns, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy yesterday laid the brutal slaying of a Heights deli owner at the doorstep of President George W. Bush.

"You should be down in (Washington) D.C. asking George Bush why he hasn't controlled the outrageous proliferation of handguns," Healy barked at a reporter asking what the city had done to make city residents safer. "It cries out for a federal cure."

Healy called the shooting death of Fidelina A. Claros "a tragedy" and said that at least once a month he shopped in her store, located less than two blocks from his home.

The mayor ticked off local initiatives he's pursued to stem gun violence, namely his gun buy-back program and an ordinance that prohibits the sale or purchase of more than one handgun within 30 days.

Between retirements and new hirings, the department has made a net gain of roughly 100 police officers during his tenure, Healy added.

"If this man (Claros's killer) didn't have a gun, there would have been a fight, a tussle, but this woman would still be with us."

KEN THORBOURNE

What a horrible cold blood crime that once again happened right in Jersey City. I don't believe severe punishment or death penalty will help eliminating this kind of crime. America is inflicted with the overflow of two explosive components: drugs + guns. As long as these two exist rampantly in American landscape, this kind of terrible killing of innocent people will continue regardless how many criminals we put them in death penalty row.

i live around corner from said deli and frequent it occasionally,she was a kind lady. America's cities are shit,now. This country needs extreme punishment and severe laws. For instance anyone who looks like a thug,should be exterminated.

Isn't anyone else concerned about what the mayor said?!? How about taking some responsibility?!?

Quote:

I think the police are working on this case!

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Across town, store owner alive because thug's gun misfired
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 -- Jersey Journal

Police say they're looking at a possible connection between yesterday's murder of a deli owner in the Jersey City Heights and an attempted robbery about 90 minutes earlier at a store on West Side Avenue.

A man walked into the West Side Avenue card and gift shop about 11:25 a.m., placed a dollar on the counter and said he wanted a lottery ticket, the store's owner told police.

Once the cash drawer was opened, the owner said, the man pulled out a handgun, shoved it under the owner's chin and pulled the trigger twice, but it didn't go off.

The man then pistol-whipped the store owner, but fled after the owner pushed an alarm button, police said.

The man in this incident was said to be wearing a camouflage jacket over a green hooded sweatshirt; the man in the Heights shooting was said to be wearing a blue jacket with a fur-lined hood.

"The police are looking at both incidents. They may or may not be linked," a police spokesman said.

KEN THORBOURNE
=======
here is the whole article from the Jersey Journal that Bergen Wood cites

In murder close to home, Healy blames illegal guns
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
By ALI WINSTON -JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The Jersey City Heights home of Mayor Jerramiah Healy is less than two blocks from the deli that was the scene of yesterday's fatal shooting and robbery.

Healy, who said last night he was a frequent customer at the G&P Deli & Grocery, on Webster Avenue near Ferry Street, said he was "saddened by this tragic event."

"Once again, the proliferation of illegal guns on the streets of our city is the cause of yet another loss of life," said Healy, who lives on Ferry Street near Central Avenue.

"The loss of this hard-working, friendly woman and this senseless crime will leave an indelible mark on her family, this neighborhood, and Jersey City."

Bystanders outside Claros' store, where she was killed, remarked that the Heights has been seeing more and more violent crimes, including the abduction and rape of a 16-year-old girl from in front of her Ravine Avenue home, just blocks from the deli.

When asked what could be done, Healy echoed the comments of Police Chief Tom Comey, who earlier this month told The Jersey Journal that lax federal gun control laws are to blame.

"Every neighborhood has changed because of the ridiculous proliferation of guns in Jersey City. A federal plague requires a federal cure," Healy said. "New Jersey and New York are tough on guns, but people can drive down to Pennsylvania, Virginia or North Carolina, buy a trunkload of guns and sell them up here."

Actually, I'd like to write in and defend the posting of these types of events. This would be a serious hunt through the Journal or Reporter, and I feel very glad that I can go to this post for info on everything from crime to mortgages. I think like most,I'm not reveling in the event, but wanting to see how I can get involved in decreasing this kind of crime and speaking out.

I live a couple of blocks from here. Now, I'm going to write my council person about crime in this area.

Jersey City Neighborhood Mourns a Friend

By JENNIFER LEE and NATE SCHWEBER
NEW YORK TIMES -- Published: Oct. 31, 2006

Fidelina Claros had steaming coffee waiting for her customers as they came in every morning, just the way they liked it: light and sweet, or black. She had her teenage daughter give rides to neighbors when their cars broke down. She gave free bagels with cream cheese to a high school student who walked by on her way to school, because she believed breakfast was the most important meal of the day.

Ms. Claros was the owner of a corner deli, a mother of three and a generous presence in the Jersey City Heights neighborhood. And yesterday her customers gathered around her store in tears after learning that Ms. Claros, a 47-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, had been shot and killed in her deli on Webster Street around 1:30 p.m.

It is unclear whether she was the victim of a premeditated killing or of a holdup that ended badly, the Jersey City police said.

?This was in broad daylight,? said Stan Eason, a spokesman for the police. ?It was very cold.?

The police were looking for the gunman last night.

Ms. Claros bought the corner store, G & P Deli, about five years ago, and landed in the neighborhood as a whirlwind of charm and compassion, her customers said. Adiana Delarosa, whose mother was a good friend of Ms. Claros, remembered that the deli owner once found a teenage boy sobbing outside her store. He told her he had a drug problem, Ms. Delarosa said, and Ms. Claros helped him find counseling.

Raul Santiago, a regular customer, described Ms. Claros as ?classy in the sense that she would give you the shirt off her back to help you.? One time, Mr. Santiago?s car broke down and he went into the deli, saying he was unable to get around. Ms. Claros had her teenage daughter drive him to the auto parts store.

Ms. Claros hung a big blue and white Salvadoran flag in her store and chatted with other customers about Latin American politics. She cooked Salvadoran dishes in the back kitchen for church functions and gave away gallons of milk to Gerardo Acosta, a 50-year-old nanny, so he could make Colombian desserts. She jumped in to help with Puerto Rican and Ecuadorean parades, explaining, ?We?re all the same.?

The neighborhood, a mix of apartment buildings and warehouses, wasn?t always the safest. Ms. Claros, who had been robbed twice before, was careful not to keep much money in the store. Customers worried about her being there alone and would visit on afternoons and weekends to keep her company. Joe Andino, 44, a mechanic, lent her his dog, a bull terrier named Capone, to make her ? and himself ? feel more at ease.

She had been trying to sell the store for several months, telling neighbors that she was tired of a business that required her to stay open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. She even kept the store open on holidays, in case her customers needed last-minute ingredients for their Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. Even though her daughter helped out before and after school, it was still a wearying job for a single mother, requiring a half-hour commute each way from her home in Roselle, N.J.

In a statement, Jersey City?s mayor, Jerramiah T. Healy, called the murder a ?tragic event.?

?Once again, the proliferation of illegal guns on the streets of our city is the cause of yet another loss of life,? Mr. Healy said. ?The woman who worked in this establishment was hard-working and friendly, and this senseless crime will leave an indelible mark on her family, friends, and the Jersey City community that she served.?

John Holl contributed reporting.
LINK TO NEW YORK TIMES

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=4711065

Police say the grocer was shot in the head and died instantly
WABC Eyewitness News

(Jersey City - WABC, October 30, 2006) - A Jersey City grocer was murdered early Monday afternoon in an apparent robbery attempt.
The suspect remains at-large.

The shooting happened inside the G&P Deli and Grocery at 55 Webster Avenue in a neighborhood of Jersey City known as the Heights.

The Hudson County Prosecutor has confirmed the victim's identity as Fedelina Claros, 47 of Roselle, New Jersey. Her nickname is Buenaventura.

It is unknown if the woman was shot execution-style or simply shot as she resisted.

The family-owned corner grocery is said to have been a fixture in this working-class neighborhood for nearly thirty years.

"I would like to know who did it and why they would do something like that to her," a neighbor said. "As sweet as she was, she'd help anybody."

Investigators say the grocer was shot point-blank in the head and died instantly, while the suspect took off into the neighborhood.

Police say an intensive search has so far yielded no additional clues as to the shooter's whereabouts.

"She took care of everybody, she was very kind," a neighbor said. "If you didn't have enough changes, she'd let you go, come back and pay her. It's unfortunate."

Authorities say the suspect took money from the lottery machine and cash from the register.

(Copyright 2006 WABC-TV)
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