NYPD searching for man after 3 shopkeeper shootings

NEW YORK (AP) - New York Detectives are searching for a balding, middle-aged man seen wearing an overcoat and carrying a duffel bag after a shopkeeper was shot dead and investigators tried to figure out whether a violent armed robber or a serial killer had slain three Middle Eastern business owners in the past four months.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said nothing was being ruled out just yet in the mysterious Brooklyn killings of shopkeepers of Middle Eastern descent. The most recent killing happened on Friday afternoon when Mr Rahmatollah Vahidipour, a Jewish man from Iran, was shot three times in the head and chest at his store, the She She Boutique.

"The possibility of a bias motive here is something that can't be excluded," Commissioner Kelly said.

After the latest killing, detectives discovered the same gun was used in the fatal shootings of two other shopkeepers when ballistics matched the .22-calibre gun shell casings on all three.