attempt in Manhattan in which Shakur had been seriously injured. December 8, 1995 – A long racial dispute in Harlem over the eviction of a black record-store owner by a Jewish proprietor ends in murder and arson. Fifty-one-year-old Roland Smith, Jr., angry over the proposed eviction, set fire to Freddie's Fashion Mart on 125th Street and opened fire on the store's employees, killing seven and wounding four. Smith also perished in the blaze. March 4, 1996 – Second Avenue Deli owner Abe Lebewohl is shot and killed during a robbery. The murder of this popular deli owner and East Village fixture remained unsolved as of 2013. June 4, 1996 – John Royster, a 22-year-old drifter, brutally beats a 32-year-old female piano teacher in Central Park, the first in a series of attacks over a period of eight days. Royster would go on to brutally beat another woman in Manhattan, rape a woman in Yonkers and beat a woman, Evelyn Alvarez, to death on Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In 1998, Royster was sentenced to life in prison without parole. March 17, 1996 — During an argument over drug debts, Michael Alig and Robert Riggs kill fellow "Club Kid" Andre Melendez, often known as "Angel" for the winged outfits he wore during the Club Kids' heyday. After keeping his body on ice in a bathtub for several days, Alig ultimately dismembered it and threw the parts in the Hudson River, where they washed up on Staten Island the next month. The pair were not arrested until October, and would eventually serve over a decade in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. July 4, 1996 – A confrontation between a police officer and subway patron at the 167th Street station on the D train in the Bronx results in the shooting death of Nathaniel Levi Gaines, the patron. Officer Paolo Colecchia was convicted of homicide, the third time that has happened to a police officer in city history. February 5, 1997 – Ali Forney, age 22, a homeless, gay, black, and transgender person who advocated for homeless LGBT youth, was found shot dead on a Harlem street. The Ali Forney Center was established in his memory. No suspects have ever been named in the case. February 23, 1997 – Abu Ali Kamal, a 69-year-old Palestinian immigrant opens fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing