NEW YORK — Police were searching Thursday for a man they believe fatally shot one worker at a Midtown wholesale store and wounded another.
The shooting came in a neighborhood said to be a center of trafficking in counterfeit fashion products and put a light on the potential violence of that trade. Sources with knowledge of the investigation said a dispute over counterfeit sneakers may have sparked the shooting.
A spokeswoman said the NYPD was seeking a man who they believe committed the shooting on Wednesday afternoon. Police said he killed one 48-year-old employee of the store, located on the second floor of 13-15 West 27 Street, and wounded another, who is 29. She did not release the victims’ names.
According to sources, the deceased was Ali Nasser al-Din, an employee of Alex Sportswear, a wholesale apparel dealer. Private investigators who focus on counterfeit fashion goods said al-Din was believed to be involved in the counterfeit business, and that the building in question is the focus of much counterfeit trading.
The al-Din family could not be reached. Calls to Alex Sportswear were not returned.
Steve Davis, a private investigator, said the building was “on the list of the top locations known for marketing knockoff designer and luxury goods.”
Kevin Dougherty, another investigator, said merchants in the building trade in counterfeit handbags, apparel, footwear and DVDs.
The stretch of Broadway between West 31st and West 24th Streets is home to a large number of small wholesale shops that sell to street vendors and small local retailers. While much of their merchandise consists of legitimate low-cost goods, such as unlogoed T-shirts and baseball caps, the side-street buildings also are home to a large number of counterfeiters, investigators said.
Thieves target the wholesalers because they tend to do business in cash, which means that a robbery can result in a take of tens of thousands of dollars. Many of the crimes go unreported because the businesses deal in illegal counterfeit goods or because the companies are staffed by illegal immigrants who are reluctant to go to authorities.
According to sources, Wednesday’s shooting resulted when a person who had bought some sneakers from al-Din tried to return them. That may have been a pretext to set up a potential robbery, sources said.
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On Thursday afternoon, the building’s doors were locked and employees were opening them only to tenants.
Fashion companies for years have been concerned about counterfeiting since it eats into their revenue and can hurt brand equity if consumers buy shoddy goods bearing a brand name.
But in recent years, authorities have grown worried that counterfeit rings may be funneling their proceeds to terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The counterfeit business is seen as appealing to some criminals because it is less risky than the drug trade, which is the focus of greater law enforcement scrutiny and tougher sentencing.