Damian Ramirez was shot and killed around midnight Friday night/Saturday morning after closing his restaurant Manhattan Brew & Vine on 109th Street and Columbus Avenue.
Ramirez, 48, had five children and lived in New Jersey. No one was immediately arrested for the homicide, which was captured on surveillance video obtained by CBS. The gunman was wearing a beige bubble jacket, police said. In the video, Ramirez can be seen walking to his car and then attempting to flee before falling to the ground on the sidewalk. The gunman stands over him.
Employees and friends told CBS they were shocked, and couldn’t imagine why this happened.
Ramirez had owned Manhattan Brew and Wine for two years. He was also a boxing manager, advising Hall-of-Famer Winky Wright, as well as Muhammad Ali’s fighting daughter, Laila.
“When I found out it was him, I didn’t believe it,” said employee Elvin Garcia.
“For what reason?” said Ramirez’s friend Edwin Viruet. “That guy didn’t bother nobody, you know what I mean? He was a clean guy, you know?”
Ramirez’s daughter Aurora said he “was not one for confrontation.”
If the video below does not show up, it can be seen here.
Below, Ramirez is pictured with one of the boxers he trained, Winky Wright.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcx-TrugwMa/
Correction: We initially misreported where Ramirez lived.
This is so sad. This was definitely personal.. Doesn’t sit well with me. May God bless his soul. May God help his family get through this difficult time.
Holy crap. That’s right there. To be fair, that corner is really sketchy. I do not feel safe walking around that block.
Molly, please see my posts from last year on here where I was attacked for saying this area has become dangerous, and I literally had to duck behind a car after shots rang out in my direction while walking past the Douglas Houses. Now, in the span of LESS THAN A WEEK, “my” neighborhood has had two murders, and one man who was grazed on the ear by a bullet as he was walking (which obviously means a few inches in one direction, and he would be dead). WHAT SAY YOU WSR sarcastic mocking posters other than “Maybe you should leave?”. Is that all you got? Come on, defend the indefensible!
it’s sad and distasteful when some commenters try to use a tragedy like this to score political points… and false ones, at that.
UWSHebrew,
You must be imagining the brutal murders and gunshots in your neighborhood. According to de Blasio (and many readers here), New York is getting safer !!
I live on 109 between Amsterdam and Columbus. It’s scary that this happened, and awful for the family. But this block has always been very sketchy, to say the least. I would not feel safe walking toward Columbus late at night, and I have lived on 109 since 2001. My feelings about safety on this block haven’t changed much in almost 17 years. They should really up the police presence in the area, especially at night, similar to what happened around the W. 109 and Amsterdam intersection a few years ago, which seemed to “clean up” that block quite a bit.
Why is this area perma-sketchy? There have been at three violent incidents in the vicinity in the last year. The last one was a stabbing in October?
PLS come the 24 Precincts Month Meeting with the Command
Its at 7pm on Wed the 20th at 151 west 100th street and open to the public
You can ask any questions you may have
The 24th Precinct is useless. They take forever to respond to any non-emergency call. Hapless at getting guns off the streets of the neighborhood….But they stationed a squad car 24-7 for an *entire* month in front of a largely empty Verizon storage property when there was a threatened labor strike. That presence reduced visible drug activity in the area…But any other time, you cannot get them to respond to a call about drug dealing to save your life.
It was police protecting capital brought vividly to life.
Don’t forget about harassing the homeless and giving rookies spray paint to “cover” graffiti
Wait, is stopping homeless people from menacing passerby for money and covering up illegal graffiti actually bothersome to you? I mean really?