Francisco Palma injured in shooting behind restaurant, cops say

A Farmingdale man was shot early Saturday morning outside a Huntington Station restaurant where violence has erupted a number of times over the past several years.

Francisco Palma, 38, was sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot behind Melissa Restaurant when two gunshots were fired at his car, striking him in the left arm about 1 a.m., Suffolk County police said in a news release.

Palma was taken to Huntington Hospital by the Huntington Community First Aid Squad with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Less than two years ago, in June 2014, Luis Ramos-Rodriguez, 38, of Huntington Station was stabbed to death at the restaurant on a Saturday night. He was found by police lying on the ground behind the building about 11 p.m. Workers and shop owners at the time told Newsday the area was a hub of violence and criminal activity.

No arrests have been made in the 2014 homicide, police said Saturday. The case remains active.

Later that year, hundreds of angry residents fed up with bloodshed in their neighborhood marched to Huntington Town Hall after a spate of unsolved murders.

Two years earlier, in December 2012, a woman reported she was injured when she was struck in the face after someone threw a glass bottle at her at the establishment, according to a police blotter item at the time. The woman went to Huntington Hospital for treatment.

A man who answered the phone at the eatery, at 1419 New York Ave. at the corner of Pulaski Road, on Saturday afternoon said he didn’t know anything about the shooting. A police spokesman on Saturday would not comment on the string of violence.

Second Squad detectives are investigating, police said. Anyone with information can call the Second Squad at 631-854-8252 or Crime Stoppers at 800-220-8477.