The dad shot point-blank in the head at a Manhattan diner was the victim of a love-triangle rivalry involving the accused gunman — who staged the robbery to cover his tracks, authorities said Tuesday.
Heiton Camacho-Bonilla, 37, is accused of mounting a cold-blooded plot to kill Harrison Ferreiras, also 37, at the Seafood King Fish Market in Washington Heights last week, “based on jealousy,” according to prosecutors.
“This act was premeditated, deliberate, callous, and it is by sheer luck that the victim is alive, albeit with significant injuries and pain,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alexander Patton told a judge at Camacho-Bonilla’s arraignment.
Ferreiras — who remained laid up at a hospital in bad shape Tuesday — had a “brief romantic fling” several months ago with the mother of Camacho-Bonilla’s child, Patton said in Manhattan Criminal Court.
That allegedly fueled a jealous rage in Camacho-Bonilla, who had been separated from the woman for about eight months, but nonetheless became “obsessed” with her new beau, the prosecutor said in court.
Just before 2 a.m. on Dec. 6, the spurned accused shooter — clad in all black clothing, a hat and a black face mask – showed up at the eatery on Broadway and West 163rd Street, ordered food and then left in what at first appeared to be a normal transaction.
But Camacho-Bonilla allegedly returned later as his romantic rival sat at the counter eating — and allegedly pointed a distinctive blue gun at his back, according to the criminal complaint.
He then grabbed Ferreiras’ phone and demanded that the woman working behind the counter fork over her cell and the cash from the register — in what prosecutors now say was an attempt to make the sick slay scheme look like a random stickup.
“Get down,” the masked gunman barked at the worker, before turning his attention once again to his intended target, pressing the gun against the back of Ferreiras’ head and pulling the trigger, the complaint states.
Ferreiras, father to an 8-year-old girl, collapsed to the floor as a pool of blood formed around him.
The suspected shooter apparently didn’t think about surveillance cameras, which captured the violent act and its aftermath.
In the harrowing footage, obtained by The Post, the victim can be seen attempting to get up before the worker, who had been hiding behind the counter, rushed to his side.
Other surveillance video from nearby locations showed the suspected gunman leaving the restaurant, with some clips depicting him without a mask on, the complaint states.
Ferreiras was rushed to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, where he underwent surgery and was initially listed in critical condition, though he has since been stable.
His 70-year-old mother, Grace Peña, was distraught when reached by phone Tuesday as she kept vigil by her son’s bedside.
“He’s not well yet,” Peña said in Spanish, adding that it is still “impossible” for her son to talk.
“How could we be doing?” she replied when asked about the family’s well-being after the shocking spurt of violence. “How could one think this would happen?”
She declined to answer questions about whether her son knew the alleged gunman – or if the suspected shooter was jealous of him.
“I have nothing to say. All I want is to pray because my son is all that matters to me. I’m not going to talk about anything else or discuss any of that,” Peña said before hanging up.
Camacho-Bonilla, who has no criminal history in the Big Apple, was arrested Saturday and charged with attempted murder, as well as assault, several counts of robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.
He “attempted to assassinate the victim based on jealousy, and tried to throw investigators off his scent by pretending it was a robbery,” Patton said during the suspect’s first appearance in court, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Judge Laura Ward ordered Camacho-Bonilla held without bail during the Sunday arraignment, after Patton also argued the suspect arrived in the US just last year and “has ties outside the country.”
It’s unclear where he lived previously.
Camacho-Bonilla would face a mandatory sentence in state prison if convicted, prosecutors said.
He was represented by Legal Aid Society attorney Alisha Bacchus during his arraignment. Representatives from Legal Aid declined to comment Tuesday.
Peña previously spoke to The Post through tears on Friday, saying people in the community have rallied around her son.
“Harrison is known by everyone in the neighborhood,” she said. “The doctors have to stop people going to the hospital.”
Since Ferreiras’ plight became known, “his phone has not stopped ringing,” Peña said.
“People are kind, they are throwing themselves on the floor because of this tragedy,” she added, referring to their grief and sadness. “The doctors said he is very loved because of all the people coming to see him.”
The wounded man’s third-grade daughter was shielded from the news of what happened to her father – with whom she is very close, the girl’s 61-year-old maternal grandmother, who did not want to be identified, said last week.
“She and her father are very close. She loves her father a lot, a lot,” said the girl’s other grandmother, who did not want to be identified. “Maybe if we tell her, we’ll have to take her to the hospital because she loves him a lot.”
She also said she can’t bring herself to visit Ferreiras in the hospital, but possibly sometime down the road.
On Tuesday, the woman said she was relieved to hear about the suspect’s arrest – adding that “now he must pay.”
“He is bad,” she said. “I want him to stay in jail.”
A worker at the eatery said Friday that Ferreiras is a fairly frequent customer who typically orders “salmon, yellow rice, sometimes soup.”
“I feel bad because he’s a good person, a good customer. He respects everyone — no trouble with him,” she said.
The staffer who witnessed the shooting, meanwhile, is so petrified that she may never return to work, another employee previously said.