Man orders bagel at Zabar’s eatery, shoots himself then flees

A man carrying a concealed gun at Zabar’s, a popular Upper West Side restaurant and store, accidentally shot himself after ordering a bagel then limped away from the scene on foot.

On Tuesday morning, police found the Zabar’s customer, 48, at nearby Roosevelt Hospital where he had walked to get help treating a bullet wound in his right leg, ABC7 reported. The gun he was carrying discharged when he reached into his pocket after ordering a bagel and coffee.

“This is unusual. Very unusual,” Saul Zabar, owner of Zabar’s, told the New York Daily News. “I really don’t know what happened.”

The shooter left the gun at Zabar’s after he accidentally shot himself around 9:35 a.m. at the store’s café near the corner of Broadway and West 80thStreet, the Daily News added.

After he left the scene of the shooting, police commenced an investigation in which they followed a blood trail to Riverside Park before finding the suspect, who is homeless, at the hospital, ABC7 added. He reportedly told police that he had found the gun on West 39thStreet.

“This is happening all over,” Rose Marie Tichler, who lives around Zabar’s, told the Daily News. “It never happened at Zabar’s before. Never!”

Police were still investigating the incident and holding the shooter on an outstanding warrant for an unrelated narcotics arrest, according to ABC7.