Jurors watched video Wednesday showing the man on trial for the murders of three Middle Eastern store owners in Brooklyn lurking outside the second victim’s 99-cent shop just minutes before the merchant was murdered.
The footage, captured by a bakery across the street from victim Isaac Kadare’s Flatbush store, shows Salvatore Perrone shuffling by around 7:02 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2012, carrying a large black duffel bag that prosecutors have called his “kill kit.”
The bag, which held a sawed-off shotgun and a bloody knife, was later found by police stuffed behind his girlfriend’s couch.
Kadare’s body was found later that night, shot in the face and stabbed repeatedly in the neck.
The killer was initially dubbed “John Doe Duffel Bag” by cops.
Perrone, a former garment salesman who authorities have called a serial killer, suffers from personality and delusional disorder, but was found fit to stand trial after two years of court appearances and three psychiatric exams.
He told cops he was a CIA operative ordered to kill Jews by Arab men who paid him for his role in the murders, claiming he was working for the “Palestinian section of the CIA” and that he watched while two different Middle Eastern men he met at a Knights of Columbus shot and killed his first two victims.
In Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday, the unstable defendant who is prone to courtroom outbursts painstakingly reviewed each surveillance DVD as it was moved into evidence.
The jury was made to wait as he took notes and questioned his court-appointed attorney, Howard Kirsch, about the footage.
While jurors were shown a one-minute clip, Perrone who faces serial murder charges for the 2012 slayings griped to Kirsch that he would need to review all three hours of footage.
He questioned Kirsch so many times during NYPD Det. Jeffrey Morales’ testimony Wednesday that the fed-up attorney finally sniped “don’t talk to me, I’m trying to listen.”
Perrone’s neat mustache twitched in response, and he sat back in his chair, remaining quiet throughout the testimony of another Brooklyn shopkeeper a man who told jurors how he nearly became one of his victims.
Clothing shop manager Rafael Picshardo said Perrone came into his store on Nov. 16, 2012, around closing, but “skedaddled” after noticing the security cameras.
“I felt uncomfortable,” said Picshardo. He said Perrone stood there for 10 minutes, just “looking up” and completely ignoring everyone.
“People were approaching him saying, ‘Good morning, hello,’ and he didn’t say anything,” Picshardo told the court. He eventually asked Perrone, “What the f— is wrong with you?”
Later that night, another business owner, Ramatollah Vahidipour, was found slaughtered down the block. None of the three slain Brooklyn shopkeepers had security cameras, prosecutors said.
Vahidipour’s daughter also briefly took the stand Wednesday, tears streaming down her face as she recalled that cold night she went looking for her father at the train depot.
A softly crying Marjan Vahidipour said she warmed up her father’s seat for him, but the habitually prompt family man never showed.
After she finished her testimony, Vahidipour’s husband Mehran Malekan asked her if she’d looked at the Perrone at all during her testimony.
“I made every effort not to,” she responded.
