A bouncer fatally shot when witnesses said a disgruntled patron opened fire into a Manhattan bar was moonlighting to earn extra money for his family, devastated relatives told the Daily News
Anton Albert, 39, was working inside Tom & Jerry’s on Elizabeth St. near E. Houston St. in NoHo about 3:20 a.m. Saturday when the gunman, who was outside on the street, started shooting into the bar, according to police.
Witnesses previously told The News the belligerent shooter had just been tossed from the bar.
Albert was struck twice in the chest and once in the stomach by the flying bullets. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, but he could not be saved.
“By the time [Albert’s mother] got the call and went to the hospital, my nephew already had passed,” said the victim’s aunt, Dominique Albert. “It hadn’t hit her yet.”
Courtesy of family
Anton Albert was fatally shot outside the Tom and Jerry’s Bar on Elizabeth Street. (Courtesy of family)
Albert, who cops said lived in the Arden Heights neighborhood of Staten Island, had last visited his mother’s Brooklyn home on Friday, where the tight-knit family would often spend Sunday evenings together.
“She was getting ready to go out, and he told her, ‘Ma, have a good time and I’ll catch up with you later’ and then that was the last that she saw her son alive,” said Dominique Albert. “It’s a shame that you go to work and this is what happens just doing your job.”
Instead of spending Sunday together — with Albert planning to cook dinner for his mother — the family was left to mourn, struggling with the unimaginable loss.
“She’s totally devastated,” Dominique Albert said of the man’s mother. “The family, we’re really suffering. This is so unexpected and it’s so painful. It’s really difficult to deal with.”
Albert worked in an office during the week and as a bouncer to pull in extra money, according to his aunt.
“He was doing everything positive,” she said. “A hardworking family man, a hardworking father, good son, good nephew, good grandson. There’s nothing bad you could say about my nephew.”
Albert leaves behind a nine-year-old daughter, with whom he had “ a very close relationship,” Dominique Albert said.
“She’s with her mother, but she’s in a lot of pain right now,” said the heartbroken aunt. “It’s so unexpected and she keeps asking for her dad.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate outside the Tom and Jerry’s Bar on Elizabeth Street on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The woman remembered Albert as a “happy-go-lucky” child with a natural talent for music, even producing a couple of his own CDs.
“I just want everybody to know that he was a loving, caring son, brother, nephew, father, husband,” said Dominique Albert. “He was a little bit of everything. But he was someone that when you were around him, you knew you were going to laugh, have a good time.”
Albert’s grandmother echoed the sentiment, remembering her grandson as “a good kid.”
“I loved him dearly,” said Pearlie Axson, 78. “He’s always been a good kid. We’ve always been there for each other. He and I were very close.”
There were no arrests as police continued to hunt down the gunman, who was described as Hispanic and wearing a grey hoodie, dark pants and white shoes. He was last seen running off down E. Houston St. after the fatal gunfire.
“We don’t know who the suspect is, but we’re certainly hoping that the police is able to find him and bring him to justice,” said Axson. “This was totally devastating and totally unnecessary.”
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