Good Samaritan paid ultimate price

A BYSTANDER who leaped into action after the holdup and shooting of a North Philly bodega owner was himself slain as he tried to pursue the gunman, authorities said yesterday.

Rafael Delvalle was inside North Philly's La Familia Mini Market on Sunday night when a masked gunman burst in and got into a gunbattle with store owner Antonio Monegro, who had pulled his own gun on the thug after he tried to rob the store.

Monegro, 39, bleeding from an abdominal wound, dropped his firearm and collapsed. When the gunman - who also was shot - discarded his weapon and ran up 5th Street from the store at Glenwood Avenue, Delvalle - now hailed by police as a Good Samaritan - made the split-second decision that led to the violent end of his own life at the hands of a second thug, whose identity remains unknown.

As Monegro lay critically wounded, Delvalle, 26, picked up his gun and chased the masked gunman - whom police identified yesterday as Edward Friedland, 26 - north on 5th Street.

What Delvalle didn't know then was that a third man who'd been in the store at the time - who police said was likely in on the robbery - had grabbed the robber's discarded gun and was hot on his trail, the crosshairs on Delvalle's back.

At some point between the store and the intersection of 5th Street and Sedgley Avenue about a block north, that man caught up with Delvalle, cops said, and fired more than one shot into his back.

Delvalle crumpled to the blacktop, and police said the shooter then stood over him and squeezed the trigger one last time, pumping a bullet into his head and leaving him bleeding in the middle of the street. Delvalle died at the scene.

Homicide Capt. James Clark said yesterday that investigators need help identifying the man who shot Delvalle.

He is described as thin, Hispanic, between 18 and 25, who wore a white T-shirt and a blue baseball cap.

Police yesterday released surveillance video from inside the store that shows the suspect.

Shopkeeper Monegro was in critical condition at Temple University Hospital yesterday, after having surgery Sunday night.

Cops said Friedland, the gunman who initiated the robbery, later turned up at Aria Health's Frankford Hospital with a gunshot wound, and remained there in critical but stable condition yesterday.

Clark said he hadn't been officially charged yesterday, but was expected to face murder charges.

Tipsters can call the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334/35 or the police tip line at 215-686-8477.