Gunman accused of killing beloved NYC deli worker was known neighborhood ‘tough guy’ nabbed in massive gang bust

The goon accused of gunning down a beloved East Village deli worker was rounded up in a massive federal gang takedown a decade ago — and came back to allegedly terrorize the neighborhood, The Post has learned.

Kavone Horton, 28 — who lives with his mother half a block away from Sal’s Deli and Grocery — allegedly harassed workers there so often they had filed at least two police complaints against him before the fatal encounter.

Horton allegedly returned to the deli Saturday night and shot dead worker Abdul Saleh, a 28-year-old father of two, during a fight that had spilled out onto the sidewalk, police said.

“He felt like he was a tough guy who could mess with people,” said Samuel Rhue, Horton’s upstairs neighbor, adding he was known to cause problems at the deli, on Avenue B near East 14th Street.

“Now he can spend the rest of his life in jail.”

Horton, who has nearly a dozen prior arrests, according to law enforcement sources, was one of 120 alleged gangbangers busted as part of a massive federal takedown in 2016.

The case involved two violent street gangs — 2Fly YGz and Big Money Bosses — who were feuding for control of a North Bronx neighborhood for their drug trafficking operations, the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office said at the time.

Horton, who went by the street name “Styles,” was part of a gang war that left a 15-year-old stabbed and left for dead and that killed a 92-year-old woman who was hit by a stray bullet inside her own home, the feds said.

In November 2017, Horton was sentenced to time already served and freed on supervised release requiring substance abuse counseling and testing, court records show.

It’s not clear whether he spent time in federal lockup, with the US Bureau of Prisons telling The Post Tuesday it does “not provide specific information on the status of individuals who are not in the custody of the BOP.”

But his neighbor said Horton became a known menace when he returned to the Alphabet City neighborhood, allegedly causing problems in recent years.

Sources said Saleh’s brother filed a harassment complaint against Horton on January 15, allegedly because the thug was screaming inside the store.

In an April 30, 2024 complaint, store workers alleged that Horton spit on Saleh.

“He’d want stuff for free. Take, grab and go and always try to fight with them,” Saleh’s cousin, Basam Hussain, said Monday.

However, the complaints could do little to curb Horton — second-degree harassment is a violation under state law, and raising it to the level of a misdemeanor requires additional proof of a crime.

Horton has since been charged with murder, manslaughter and weapons possession and was awaiting arraignment from a hospital bed after getting hit by a bullet ricochet during the tussle, according to sources. He was in stable condition.

Saleh had complained last year that he was worried about violence in the community.

“To be honest, he didn’t want to be here no more. He didn’t feel safe,” Hussain said. “Last year, he was talking about his safety. They’d call the cops, and they would never answer. They’d come three or four hours later. He was talking about this. Same story.”

Saleh had only just returned Friday from a trip to Yemen to his visit his wife, 3-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son before the senseless murder — and had met his younger child for the first time, his cousin said.

Shortly after 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, the two men got into a scuffle that spilled out onto the sidewalk, where Horton allegedly pulled out a gun and opened fire — striking the married dad in the torso.

Saleh died in his brother’s arms, his family said.

“Before he died, he said, ‘Just take care of my kids,’” Hussain said. “That’s what he tell him, ‘Just take care of my kids.’”

— Additional reporting by Emily Crane