Bucks lawyer slain outside his office

THE MAN WITH the knit cap sat at a table outside a Bucks County eatery yesterday morning, smoking away the sunny day as he looked onto a strip-mall parking lot.

The waitstaff, inside the Famous Deli & Restaurant, on Buck Road, in Holland, waited for the potential customer to order food.

He didn't.

Instead, about 9 a.m., the mystery smoker apparently walked to the other side of the parking lot and shot a man at close range in the back of the head.

The victim, who had been chatting with a female co-worker, fell to the ground.

The shooter then fled in a vehicle.

The victim, identified by witnesses and friends as personal-injury lawyer Eric Birnbaum, 51, of Neil Road near Welsh, Northeast Philadelphia, died of his injuries at 1:15 p.m. at St. Mary Medical Center, in Langhorne.

He was killed in front of his workplace, Terry Goldberg & Associates, on Buck Road, which is located in the same strip mall, Gateway Shopping Center, as the deli.

Northampton Township police are investigating the murder, the first in the township since 2005.

Friends and colleagues had nothing but love for the victim.

"Eric was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet," said lawyer Neal Axe, who worked with Birnbaum for 20 years at the law practice of Slifkin & Axe, in Center City.

"He was a loving father to two daughters."

"I cannot imagine why anyone would want to harm him in any way," Axe said, adding that Birnbaum had left on good terms to work alongside his best friend and law-school classmate, Terry Goldberg.

Last night, Birnbaum's Facebook page had several wall postings.

"OMG I just found out & I couldn't stop crying!" wrote one friend. "My prayers r with you."

Birnbaum was a "really, really nice guy" said Stuart Thomas, owner of the Famous Deli.

The loss jarred the community as well, officials said.

"It's horrifying to imagine that somebody is gunned down in broad daylight in a quiet, peaceful area like Holland, Bucks County, Pa.," said David Zellis, the county's first-assistant district attorney.

For a moment, however, chaos reigned in the Gateway Shopping Center parking lot. Birnbaum had been chatting with a female co-worker, who pulled up in her car next to his black Acura TL.

Once the shot or shots were fired, the co-worker dropped her coffee and doughnuts and ran for cover behind a vehicle, "obviously in fear of [her] life," said Barry Pilla, Northampton's police chief.

A third Goldberg employee ran out into the lot and "may have observed a vehicle leaving the area," he said.

Shortly after, Jeremy Thomas, 20, son of the deli owner, pulled into the parking lot.

"[I] saw someone lying down and two ladies screaming and I thought someone was having a heart attack," Thomas said.

"I sprinted over there, thinking he had to go to the hospital and as soon as I got there, I saw blood everywhere."

The female witness screamed, "He shot him! He shot him! He's dead!" Thomas recalled.

A deli worker who identified himself only as Bruce said that he hadn't heard gunshots, only the ruckus of Jeremy Thomas running in for help.

Bruce followed him outside and "saw him [Birnbaum] laying there in a pool of blood," he said.

Bruce and Thomas walked the "hysterically crying" female witness back into the Goldberg offices.

Initial information indicated that a blue minivan was involved in the shooting, which led to the detaining of a driver in Northeast Philadelphia about 20 minutes after the shooting, Pilla said. The man was cleared by mid-afternoon.

"We have no idea of knowing what could have precipitated it," Pilla said.

"We're looking at all avenues and all possibilities. We don't want to limit ourselves to one particular premise."

When asked during a news conference later whether police suspected the shooting to have been a contract killing, Pilla said: "We can't speculate. I have no idea."

Northampton police today will be posted around the Gateway mall to talk about the case with motorists driving on Route 532, Pilla said.

Officers will pass out flyers with information about the shooting and ask drivers if they witnessed anything suspicious about 9 a.m. yesterday.

Investigators will review video surveillance taken at the strip mall and at a bank across the street.

The shooter is described as a male wearing a knit cap with a logo or design and sun glasses, Pilla said.

Anyone who has information about the shooting or who may have been near the crime scene between 7 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. is asked to call 215-322-6111. *