Shooting in Coney Island apartment, Raul Cordero shot to death
Before his death, the slain Brooklyn father was preparing a family trip to the Poconos and decorating his new home.
With the pull of a trigger, a Coney Island man's plans for a new apartment with his girlfriend and their two sons vanished.
Raul Cordero, 39, was helping his longtime love set up furniture in their home when he was shot and killed by two men in the courtyard of a nearby apartment building on Friday evening.
“This was their first apartment,” his distressed mother-in-law told the Daily News on Saturday, crying and on the verge of tears. “They were making preparations for a family holiday. They were heading to the Pocono Mountains. They've been together for over a decade.”
Cordero, also known as "Macho," left behind two sons, aged 8 and 10, and a devastated mother who was still unable to speak on Saturday. Cordero was also the father of a daughter, according to the victim's brother.
The mother-in-law explained, "The eight-year-old keeps calling for daddy." “All we told him (Cordero) was that he went to the supermarket. The ten-year-old is unable to stop crying... You can't tell them their father was murdered. You're not allowed to say that.”
Cordero was in the courtyard of the Harbor View apartments on W. 21st St. around 6:40 p.m. when two men approached and began arguing with the victim, according to police. One of them then pulled out a pistol and shot the lifelong local resident, who had 16 previous convictions on his record.
Both suspects fled the scene and have yet to be apprehended by police. The precise motive for the killing is still unknown to police.
The mother-in-law said she and her daughter were out shopping when they got the call about the murder, and they left Cordero playing with his nieces and nephews in the apartment shortly after.
She said of the murderer, "I think people who do that have no heart." “I'm baffled by what happened. I just hope whoever did this is apprehended, because they took a father away from his children.”