Victim in Stop & Shop case testifies at murder trial that chat with Gabriel Wilson before shooting was professional

Stop & Shop store manager Aram Dikici testified Tuesday that cart collector Gabriel Wilson had come into his office on the morning of April 20, 2021, to request a transfer to a Hempstead store closer to his home. 

Dikici agreed to the transfer during their conversation, which he described as brief and non-confrontational, he testified in Nassau County Criminal Court. So he was stunned when Wilson returned to his office about 45 minutes later, pointed a .380 semiautomatic handgun at him, and fired three times.

“I remember a flash and a bang” as the first bullet ripped through his right cheek, Dikici testified on Tuesday, the second day of his former co-worker’s second-degree murder trial. 

Wilson was “calm, not rushed, almost like he was an assassin,” said the 52-year-old, who immigrated to New York when he was 10 and has worked in the supermarket industry for decades. 

Wilson, 33, pleaded not guilty in June 2021 to a nine-count indictment that included second-degree murder, attempted murder and other charges. Nassau County prosecutors said he opened fire on Dikici and four other Stop & Shop employees on that deadly day in 2021.

Grocery manager Ray Wishropp, a father of seven, was fatally shot and another employee, perishables manager Olivia Leary, was also severely injured. Leary is expected to testify on Wednesday. 

Dikici testified Tuesday that after Wilson returned to his office, he stood in the doorway of the second-floor manager’s office, his arm extended, and pointed a gun at him. The defendant muttered something Dikici didn’t understand, then opened fire. 

The first bullet ripped a chunk of flesh from Dikici’s right cheek.  The second hit the top of his shoulder. The third struck his right chest, breaking his clavicle and two ribs before it came to rest in a lung. 

“I couldn’t believe what was happening,” he said. 

Wilson then turned to Leary, who was standing to Dikici’s right. The bullet hit her in the chest, knocking her to the ground, the store manager testified. 

Leary screamed in pain as blood was “spurting out of her like a garden hose,” Dikici testified. 

At the urging of Assistant District Attorney Jared Rosenblatt, Dikici showed the jury the deep scar on his cheek that will serve as a permanent reminder of that day,

Assistant District Attorney Stefanie Palma said in her opening argument that Wilson then entered another office where Wishropp was eating lunch and fatally shot him. Stop & Shop customers, unable to hear the gunshots over the din of cash registers and shopping carts, were unaware of the carnage until they were ordered out of the store by Nassau police. 

About a dozen of Wishropp’s family members and supporters have been present both days of the trial. Many gasped when Assistant District Attorney Jared Rosenblatt showed the jury a photo of Dikici shortly after the shooting, the wound on his cheek raw and bloody. Wishropp’s relatives and friends embraced Dikici after his testimony was completed. 

Wishropp’s cousin, Alex Bernard, said the family had never met Dikici prior to Tuesday’s testimony. 

“I’m glad his family didn’t have to lose him,” Bernard said. “Live or die, it was a traumatic experience for everybody that day.”

Wilson’s defense attorney, Brian Carmody, acknowledged in his opening statement on Monday that Wilson shot Wishropp, Dikici and Leary, but he asked jurors to keep an open mind about what was in his client’s heart on the day of the deadly shooting.

Dikici said that he still struggles with shortness of breath and decreased range of motion on his right side. He said he has not returned to work since the shooting more than two years ago.

During Monday’s opening arguments, Carmody said he expected his client would be convicted of some crimes. Carmody, who declined to talk to reporters on Tuesday, has ruled out a defense that claims the shooting was triggered after Wilson suffered an extreme emotional disturbance because it would open the door to testimony about Wilson’s prior criminal record. 

Carmody may want to persuade the jury to convict Wilson of the lower charge of manslaughter, rather than second-degree murder, which has a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.