Savages!
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

If The video above doesnt play then play the one below

It was just a little bump – one man’s shoulder against another’s in the narrow aisle of a deli in Queens.

But that bump led to swinging fists — and, outside, a gunshot that put 20-year-old SUNY Buffalo football star Malachi Capers in the hospital fighting for his life.

Just after 4:30 p.m. Monday, Capers, 20, walked into the 136th Ave. Deli at the corner 136th Ave. and Springfield Blvd. in Laurelton.

A video camera in the deli shows Capers bumping into a man identified by police as Jeffrey Thurston. Capers and Thurston are strangers, said police.Video shows gunman shoot apparent stranger after minor dispute inside Queens deli, cops said.

After the bump — which appeared to cause Thurston to drop his cell phone — Capers tried to walk past.Advertisement

The police video has a gap. It then shows Thurston swinging with his right, hitting Capers hard in the shoulder or face.

Capers chased Thurston out of the store. Outside, Capers — a defensive end for the Buffalo State Bengals in 2018 — tackled Thurston. Both men wrestled on the sidewalk.[More New York] Elderly Brooklyn man kidnapped outside home, forced at knifepoint to hand over $900 from bank account »

There’s another gap in the video, during which Capers evidently got up and walked into a crosswalk.

When the video resumes, Capers walks back to the sidewalk at the deli entrance — where Thurston pulled a gun on him.

Thurston shot Capers in the stomach, and ran off.[More New York] Manhattan subway shover’s racial epithet a mystery to woman he pushed to the tracks »

Capers, a Queens resident who played football at Flushing High School before he graduated in 2018, was taken to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition. He was expected to survive, sources said.

Cops are asking the public’s help tracking Thurston down, and released a photo of his face.

Capers’ landlord, Larry Wells, said he walked with the victim’s mother to the shooting site. He said Capers and his family have lived in the area about three or four years.[More New York] Big Manhattan building contractor accused of cheating unions of $1 million in pension, benefit money »

“He’s a nice young man,” Wells said. “There’s no more to say. He has good manners.”

Wells said said Capers returned home after the pandemic shut down the school, and he started working at UPS.

A neighbor described Capers as polite, and said Capers takes his 4-year-old brother every morning to a nearby park nearby.[More New York] No prison for ex-Brooklyn public school teacher convicted of sexually abusing teen »

“He’s very patient with him,” the neighbor said.

Capers works nights at a UPS processing plant sorting packages, said a supervisor there.

“Malachi is a very good kid,” the supervisor said. “He’s only interested in school. We’re patiently waiting for news that he’s OK.”

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Sources described Thurston as an ex-con with a violent criminal history. He has been arrested twice — including a 2011 arrest on charges of fighting on a school bus, and a bust in March on charges of breaking into an ex-girlfriend’s home in Queens.

In the break-in, Thurston is accused of entering the home of his ex, 26, and her 6-year-old son through a basement window. Inside, Thurston waved a knife and threatened the woman, said police.

He is charged in that incident with burglary, assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

On the same day, he was also charged with criminal mischief after he attacked his own mother, according to court records.. He allegedly was arguing with the 47-year-old woman when he grabbed her, causing her to bang up against a door, records show.[More New York] ‘This is almost like a flashback for our family’: Relatives of college football player shot outside Queens deli recall his father’s murder ten years ago »

The woman was not seriously harmed.

Anyone with information about Thurston’s whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All information is kept confidential.