Police are investigating whether the 21-year-old man shot dead outside a Brooklyn auto repair shop was targeted as part of a beef involving the Trinitarios gang, police sources said Thursday.
Joharis Rivas had just pulled his black BMW sedan up to Robel Auto Repair shop on Meserole St. near Union Ave. in Williamsburg when he was shot around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, cops and witnesses said.
A witness to the brazen daylight shooting said the victim made eye contact with a man on an e-bike, who then pulled out a gun, fired and quickly fled the scene.
Medics rushed him to Elmhurst Hospital Center, but he could not be saved.
Rivas is not listed in the NYPD’s gang database, but detectives are exploring whether the shooting was linked to an internal feud within the violent Trinitarios street gang, according to police sources.
Prior to his death, the victim was being sought for questioning in connection with a February 2024 robbery in East New York, Brooklyn, where two men on a red moped stole a man’s cellphone and $80 in cash, according to sources.
Rivas also witnessed the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Erickson Rivera on Dinsmore Place near Chestnut St. in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, in April 2023, and police were seeking to question him about it, sources added.
The Dominican Republic native had three young daughters, with the eldest just 2 years old, the Daily News previously reported.
“They are going to grow up without their dad and that’s so sad,” said family friend Junior Davis, 17. “I really loved his daughters. That’s why we’re going to look out for [them].”
Rivas lived in Cypress Hills with Davis and his family, who took him in when the victim fell on hard times a couple of years ago, the teen said.
Police are still searching for the gunman.
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