VIDEO: Surveillance camera captures moment that Bronx bodega worker, 20, is fatally shot by NYPD after masked gunmen stick up Morrisania shop

A bodega worker’s desperate sprint for his life ended instead with his bloody death on a Bronx sidewalk — cut down by an errant police bullet.

Reynaldo Cuevas, 20, was accidentally shot by a veteran cop when the two collided outside the cramped corner store where three masked thugs were bungling an armed robbery, police said.

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“Why would they do this to him?” asked family friend Maricela Rodriguez, 41, as the Cuevas family mourned his stunning death. “He was just an innocent kid.”.

Cuevas, whose uncle owned the store, bolted for safety just behind night manager Felix Mora about 1:50 a.m. Friday in the Aneurys Deli Grocery, according to cops and witnesses.”

Mora, held hostage with Cuevas for 15 minutes, escaped from the bandits unscathed.

But Cuevas barreled headlong into Officer Ramysh Bangali, whose gun discharged a single fatal blast as the two tumbled to the sidewalk, cops said.

The entire deadly episode “transpired in a matter of seconds,” said NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “And the collision between Mr. Cuevas (and the officer) in split seconds.”

Cuevas was in the store because he had returned after forgetting to grab a bar of Hispano soap from the shelves at the end of his long night shift.

The bandits, after snatching $718 in cash held in a Dutch Masters cigar box, filled their knapsack with cigarettes and lottery tickets — only to find their luck had run out, Kelly said.

“Not talking,” said suspect Orlando Ramos, 32, as he left the 42nd Precinct stationhouse in cuffs. Co-defendants Ernesto Delgado, 28, and Christopher Dorsey, 17, said nothing.

All three were charged with felony murder in Cuevas’ tragic slaying. Delgado had previously worked in a bodega across the street, and Mora said the suspect was casing his store one night before the holdup.

Bangali had never fired his weapon on duty during seven years with the NYPD, cops said.

At the officer’s home, a woman who identified herself as his wife said her husband wouldn’t be speaking.

“There’s always two sides to every story,” she said. “He’s just an awesome father and a great man.”
Bangali was one of the officers named in a wrongful arrest lawsuit filed this year over a January 2011 bust. The case is pending in Bronx Supreme Court.

A security video released by the NYPD showed barely a second elapsed between Mora’s escape and Cuevas’ lethal encounter with the officer.

The uniformed cop is seen standing at the intersection of Franklin Ave. and E. 169th St., waving his right hand as other cops move toward the store.
Just before Mora pulls up the store gate and emerges, the officer pulls his gun from its holster and faces the front entrance.
Cuevas and Mora quickly emerge.

The terrified Cuevas, ducking as if afraid of gunshots from behind, runs into the officer and falls to the sidewalk. The shooting is imperceptible on the video, which ends with the officer seen pointing his weapon on the mortally wounded Cuevas beneath him..

“Ray came running out — he was running scared,” said Mora, 43, who had survived two earlier armed robberies.”

Witnesses said none of the cops ordered Cuevas to stop or identified themselves before the fatal bullet was fired from the officer’s 9-mm. Sig Sauer.

They watched in horror as the victim’s body was dragged along the sidewalk.

“The cops shot him, right as he came out of the store,” said C.C. Berrian, 18, who left the bodega just before the robbers entered. “Right after I left, I heard the shot and I saw the boy drop.”

Dorsey, Delgado and Ramos slipped into the store at closing time after Cuevas left the gate open while hunting for his bar of soap, Mora said.
Ramos — armed with a decades-old silver .32-caliber Harrington & Richardson handgun — bashed Mora in the head while forcing the two employees to lie facedown on the floor.

“I didn’t want to die,” said Mora, who surrendered the store’s cash to the bandits.

A passerby called 911 and police responded almost immediately.

Ramos, after seeing one of the officers, began shouting, “Policia! Policia!” He and Delgado bolted for the back of the store, hoping to find a way out — only to become trapped in the basement.

Dorsey came out right behind the two other men and surrendered, Kelly said.

Ramos, an ex-con who was still on parole for dealing drugs, barricaded himself in the basement with Delgado.

A tense 31/2-hour standoff ended when Delgado came outside, insisting that he was a hostage. Cops went inside to find Ramos roped to a pole and making the same claim.n.

Dorsey’s mother said her son was guilty only of running with the wrong crowd.

“He has no business running with guys like that,” said mom Beverly Ortiz, 37. “He’s a straight-A student.”

Cop said they recovered an unloaded .32-caliber revolver hidden behind bags of birdseed.

Kelly, despite questions, said the officer followed procedure.

“(With) an armed robbery going on inside the store it’s understandable, actually required, that they take their weapons out,” Kelly said.

With Kerry Burke, Kerry Wills, Erik Badia and Matthew Lysiak

lmcshane@nydailynews.com