By Gabriela Resto-Montero and Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — Just after noon on Wednesday, a man in grey slacks and a blue jacket stepped into a Madison Avenue jewelry shop, slipped past the display cases of precious gems and pulled a gun.
Two workers, including 71-year-old Henry Menahem, were inside, police said. Moments later, a shot rang out, and Menahem fell with a bullet in his chest. The robber fled into the streets of the Upper East Side with an untold amount of jewelry.
Paramedics pulled Menahem onto the sidewalk, giving him CPR. They loaded him onto an ambulance for Lenox Hill Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The brazen midday heist rattled shoppers and storekeepers along the strip of expensive fashion boutiques and art galleries where Menahem worked. R.S. Durant shares the block of Madison Avenue between E. 75th and E. 76th streets with shops run by designers Carolina Herrera and Nanette Lepore, and is a block away from the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Many of the shops require visitors to buzz before they enter, but it wasn’t clear if that was the case at R.S. Durant.
“I’m a little concerned about security. I think all of us are,” said Silas Shabelewska, manager at the Helly Nehmad gallery. It’s a small community of shopkeepers…It happened at peak time. That’s really scary.”
Valerie Dallafiora and her daughter, Sandra, walked past the crime scene and recalled window-shopping there recently. A young worker greeted them and pointed to a $35,000 emerald necklace. He told them in a joking voice, "C'mon in, we're having a big sale."
The robber remained on the loose Wednesday night, as crime scene investigators scoured the store for clues. A police spokesman said the robber left behind shattered glass, but it wasn’t immediately clear if that was from the gunshot or if he smashed a display case to grab jewelry.
Menahem lived in Long Branch, N.J. Family members there declined to comment.
Because he was a devout Jew, members of Chesed Shel Emes, a Jewish social service organization, showed up at the scene to collect blood in order the he would be buried according to Jewish law.
