The innocent Brooklyn restaurant worker killed early this month by a disgruntled patron who fired wildly from his car “didn’t deserve to die like that,” his wife told The Post on Friday — as the NYPD released photos of the drive-by fleeing suspect.
Frankley Duran, 36, was trying to close the gates of Room 1Hundred — a restaurant on Jamaica Avenue near New Jersey Avenue in East New York — just after midnight on Dec. 2 when a motorist opened fire inside the eatery, according to police and surveillance video obtained by The Post.
Duran, who was hit in the head, was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where he was initially listed in critical condition and succumbed to his injuries two days later, authorities said.
“Everything happened in the blink of an eye,” Duran’s wife, Yesmel Tejeda, 38, told The Post on Friday.
“The way that happened, he didn’t deserve to die like that, and I hope that the police, the communities and everyone find that person because this is something that we will all get through, but with time, with time .”
The gunman had flipped an unpaid $280 bill at the restaurant, Tejeda said.
The enraged man then got into his 2016 Chrysler with New York license plate LAL 7188, callously fired into the diner he had just left and sped away, police and sources said.
Duran — who sources said had no criminal history and was not involved in the initial chaos — collapsed to the ground as the car turned right onto Marginal Street East, the short clip shows.
Tejeda, who had been married to Duran for two years and planned to start a family with him next year, said her husband’s colleague called her to tell her what happened.
“They told me, ‘Oh, something happened to Frankley’ … so I think he was a little drunk,” Tejeda said. “So I was like, ‘Can you put him on the phone now?’ I was like, so angry. And they said to me, ‘Oh, he can’t talk now.’ I’m like, ‘[What do] Are you saying he can’t talk now?’ I think my blood pressure has dropped.”
She said she rushed to the hospital to be with her husband.
“I know he knew I was there,” she said. “I know he knew I was there. Yes. I know that.”
Tejeda said police have described the investigation into her husband’s death as “a complicated case.”
“So they’re saying they want all the evidence together,” she said. ‘And I thought, what do you mean? There are cameras everywhere.”
“So that’s the part I don’t understand,” Tejeda added. “I really want the whole community and people to connect with each other so they can find each other [the suspect].”
The couple planned to visit family in the Dominican Republic over the holidays, she said.
“And because of that terrible incident, we’re not here,” Tejeda said. “Right now I’m just giving myself some time. Because this… it’s been too much. It was way too much.”
Tejeda lit up for a moment when asked how she met her husband.
“We met at a restaurant,” she remembers. “I would go buy food every day and mind my own business, and he was there and he saw me every day.”
“So one day he approached me, and I was at the register, and he said to the lady, ‘You know what? I’m going to pay her bill.’ I’m like, ‘Excuse me?’ And him [said]“Yes,” and since that day [we were together].”
She described her slain husband as “a good guy, a great guy, a good husband, a good son, a good brother.” [and] a good part of the community, a good person.”
The NYPD released two images of the suspect’s getaway ride Friday morning in an effort to get tips from the public.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or in Spanish: 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/or at X @NYPDTips.
