MP auto shop owner found dead after abduction

MP auto shop owner found dead after abduction|MP auto shop owner found dead after abduction
Photo by Edwin Soto|Photo courtesy of Facebook

The owner of an auto after-market shop is dead following his abduction on Tuesday, September 20, according to the NYPD.

Police responded to a 911 call of an armed kidnapping at Mobile Creations Sounds & Security Corporation at 1631 Stillwell Avenue at 8:50 a.m.

Two customers, who were also tied up and put in a vehicle trunk, told police they had managed to get free.

They claimed two male suspects, wearing masks, gloves and hooded sweatshirts, entered the store and tied them up.

The shop’s owner, Robert Bishun, 36, of Rockland County, was forcibly taken by the assailants.

At around 11:16 a.m., police located Bishun’s high-end BMW sedan parked approximately six miles away at 6071 Broadway in front of Van Cortlandt Park.

Bishun was found sitting upright in the back seat of the vehicle, unconscious and unresponsive, with a tightly fastened zip tie around his neck.

He was transported to Montefiore Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Bishrun had a drug arrest history said authorities.

He was arrested in 2012 along with a co-worker in connection with a heroin ring after DEA agents found cocaine, heroin, a handgun, large amounts of cash and a paperwork detailing ongoing drug transactions on the premises.

Bishun was convicted on felony drug trafficking charges and served a 2 to 3 years federal prison stint before he was released in November 2014, according to 49th Precinct Detective Jay Sturdivant.

Bishun’s wife, Celia Cuza, ran the business while he was incarcerated, Sturdivant confirmed.

Bishun had been the victim of a similar incident on January 24, 2015, Sturdivant said, when two unidentified men entered the store brandishing a handgun and tied him up before making off with $15,000 and the keys to a 2015 Mercedes Benz sedan. They were not caught.

The other person arrested in the 2012 raid of the auto sound shop, James Rainer, was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison, according to published reports.

Sturdivant said he was unfamiliar with Rainer’s case and did not know whether he was still serving time.

Tuesday’s incident left community leaders concerned in what is one of the borough’s safest communities.

“This is very serious for this neighborhood,” said Morris Park Community Association vice president Al D’Angelo Wednesday. “It’s not good, because when people hear about it they might think this neighborhood is not as safe as it actually is.”

D’Angelo said he suspects Bishun was targeted and that the incident was not random, since only the owner was abducted from the store.

He said he was not familiar with Bishun’s drug arrest in 2012, but that it seemed likely to be related to the incident.

“No one deserves to die, but that’s the price you pay for getting involved with that sort of thing,” D’Angelo said.

Reach Reporter Arthur Cusano at (718) 260-4591. E-mail him at acusano@cnglocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @arthurcusano .
Robert Bishun, 36, of Rockland County, was found dead in the trunk of a car near Van Cortlandt Park just hours after he was abducted from his Morris Park auto shop Tuesday evening. Two other people at the shop were tied up and stuffed in car trunks but managed to escape and call 911.
Photo courtesy of Facebook