NYC scooter shooter victim recalls moment of sudden terror

One minute Cesar Martinez was crossing the street — the next he was lying on it with a bullet in his shoulder.

That’s how the 21-year-old Brooklyn man remembers what would become the first in a series of four horrific shootings across Brooklyn and Queens perpetrated by a lone, scooter-riding gunman.

“I was walking and then the lights turned out,” Martinez told the Daily News on Monday. “I woke up in a pool of blood”

Martinez was shot Saturday on Arlington Ave. and Ashford St. at 11:10 a.m. by 25-year-old deliveryman Thomas Abreu, who lived in a Cypress Hills duplex just two blocks away, according to police.

Cops say that Abreu would go on to claim blast other victims, including 87-year-old Hamod Ali Saeidi, whose grisly murder was caught by surveillance footage obtained by The News.

Martinez’s shooting was also captured in a graphic security feed that shows the Brooklyn man crossing the street as the moped-riding gunman zips past him and opens fire, sending the victim sprawling onto the crosswalk.

Martinez — who, like Abreu, delivers food for a living — recalled waking up to a good Samaritan hovering over him. He gave the man his father’s cellphone number and then faded out of consciousness, he said.

“I asked him, ‘Don’t let me die, don’t let me die.’” Martinez recounted. “I gave him my dad’s phone number, it was the only one I could think of.”

“Then the lights turned out and I woke up in the hospital,” he added.

Martinez was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where doctors stabilized and later released him to convalesce at home under the care of his mother and grandmother.

Physicians are still trying to determine whether extracting the bullet — which remains embedded in his shoulder — is worth the risk, according to his mother.

“The bullet is still in him,” said Denise Fernandez. “They decide on Thursday whether to do surgery to take it out. They are afraid of nerve damage.”

Martinez took a few other licks from the shooting, including a loose tooth, a broken nose and a pinched nerve, but is expected to make a full recovery, according to his grandmother.

“It’s going to take time but he’s going to be back to his normal self,” said Ana Burgos, 60. “I can’t wait. I can’t wait.”

Martinez’s recovery will not be without struggle, and the bullet lodged inside of his shoulder remains a source of constant pain, the victim noted.

“My body aches,” said Martinez. “The bullet in my right shoulder sends shooting pains down my right arm. It’s resting on the nerve.”

Even so, Martinez realizes things could have been even worse — especially after doctors told him how close he came to paralysis and death.

“I feel lucky to be alive. At the hospital, they said that, too,” the shooting victim said. “They also said I was lucky not to be paralyzed.”

Abreu appeared unhinged at his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Monday, where he ranted at Judge Scott Dunn, saying, “Everybody says that I’m innocent. That’s the best problem that there is.”

That was after the defendant informed police of a multinational conspiracy set against him, authorities said.

“The Russians are after me,” Abreu told his arresting officers, according to prosecutors. “The Chinese are after me. The Italians are after me. Africa is after me.”

But Fernandez and Burgos aren’t buying the ravings, saying Abreu knew exactly what he was doing when he left his house with a loaded gun.

“He knew what he was going to do. He knew he wanted to kill people,” said Fernandez. “There’s nothing mental about coming out of your house with a gun and knowing you want to hurt and kill people.”

Martinez struck a diplomatic note when discussing his shooter.

”My mother always taught me, ‘If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing,’” said the victim. “I have no nice words to say.”

After blasting Martinez, Abreu sped over to Jamaica Ave. in Richmond Hill, Queens, where he shot Saeidi in the back during one of the victim’s daily walks near 109th St. at 11:27 a.m., cops said.

The Daily News Flash

Weekdays

Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon.

Abreu then opened fire on a group standing a block away on 108th St., but his bullets failed to hit their marks and he sped away, according to police.

The shooter next targeted a 44-year-old man on Hillside Ave. and 126th St. at 11:35 a.m., striking him in the cheek, police said. The man was rushed to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition.

The gunman shot his final victim, a 63-year-old man, on Jamaica Ave. and 134th St. at 11:37 a.m., striking that person in the shoulder.

“I would like to know why,” Burgos said. “How do you get up in the morning and say ‘I’m just going to go out and hurt four families?’ Because it’s not only mine. I’m also grieving for the man who passed away and the others who are in the hospital.”

“Like, why? What was your problem?” she continued. “He didn’t do nothing to you. Neither did the other people. And they say, ‘mental illness.’ But nah, he knew exactly what he was doing.”

Martinez has two younger sisters who are 14-year-old twins and an 18-year-old brother.

“They are taking it hard,” the grandmother said. “His brother, he doesn’t like to show emotions. He likes to keep everything inside of him. Yesterday when they gave the OK to go in one by one, when he came out he was crying. I hugged him and I said, ‘It’s OK to cry. It’s OK to cry.’ So we both cried.”