Report: Couple Wanted for Questioning Knows Isaac Kedare's Killer

A young couple with information about the murders of Bensonhurst 99-cent store owner Isaac Kadare and Bay Ridge clothing merchant Mohammed Gebeli could blow this darkening double slaying wide open, say police who are hoping to locate and question the duo as soon as possible.

Investigators told NBC news that the couple are not considered suspects in the killings, which were linked on Friday when cops discovered that the same gun was used in both crimes. Yet cops believe that the couple know who the triggerman is.

Isaac Kadare, 59, was found sprawled out on the floor inside his Amazing 99-Cent and Up Deals store near 19th Avenue at 8:45 pm on Thursday and was declared dead at the scene, police said.

An autopsy later revealed that Kadare had died from a bullet to the skull and puncture wounds to the throat — a bullet fired from the same .22-caliber gun that killed Gebeli in his store on Fifth Avenue between 77th and 78th streets on July 6.

Kadare, a Sephardic Jew who lived on Quentin Road with his wife, three daughters, and a son, was described as a devoted family man and a hard worker who converted his furniture store into a 99-cent shop during the recession.

He never installed any surveillance equipment in his store, so it’s unknown what happened in the shop in the moments before he was killed.

Kadare’s 18-year-old son, Mark, told reporters that he believed his father was killed for $900 in rent money he had collected from a tenant in his building.

But police mused that the killer — described as a 5-foot-nine Hispanic wearing dark sunglasses — may have a psychotic obsession with numbers. Kadare’s store was at 1877 86th Street while Gebeli’s address was the reverse: 7718 Fifth Avenue, investigators noted.

Yesterday cops stood guard at a storefront whose address has the same four numbers as two shops.

The ramped-up street patrols were posted outside the East Ocean Buffet, at 1778 86th St. in Bay Ridge, as part of a police effort to canvass the area for the killer.

The address of the Chinese restaurant includes two sevens, a one and an eight.

“This is the 62nd Precinct, but other officers have been brought into the area. We’re looking for the guy,” said Officer Cruz, of the 94th Precinct, who was outside the buffet with his partner.

He would not give his first name.

“I’m here for at least the day tour, and someone is going to replace me for the 4 p.m.-to-12 a.m. shift,” said Cruz, whose marked police cruiser was parked outside the buffet most of the day.

He said no one had told him to stand outside the eatery because of its address and added, “If that’s the reason, I’m not privy to it.”

“We’re walking within a radius,” he said. “It’s not just two cars in this area. There are more of us.”

Buffet manager Kelsey Zheng said she and her staff were grateful for the police presence.

“We all do feel better that there are officers on the street,” she said. “It definitely makes me feel safer that I can see them.”

Cops from other Brooklyn precincts were seen patrolling Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst.

Police brass insisted that while the additional patrols were flooding neighborhoods, it was just a coincidence that two were posted outside the East Ocean Buffet.

Sources added that while it was possible that the killer chose his targets because of a bizarre fascination with the digits, it was not the main focus of the investigation, but they hadn’t ruled it out.

Cops also suggested that race might have been a motive — both men are of Egyptian descent, investigators said.

Brooklyn Daily / NY Post