MANHATTAN — A manager at famed Midtown sandwich joint the Carnegie Deli had to be hospitalized Monday after a homeless man attacked him as he tried to hail a cab near the Port Authority bus terminal, according to police and published reports.
Jose Robles, 52, a manager at Carnegie Deli, was waiting for a cab outside 625 Eighth Ave., near West 40th Street, about 5:45 a.m. when he was approached by Bryant Sassony, 31, who punched him in the back of the head and knocked him to the ground, according to a Port Authority police spokesman and the Daily News.
Robles took out his phone to call police and ran into the nearby bus terminal, but Sassony followed and continued to strike him while demanding his phone, the PAPD said.
"That phone is mine now," Sassony, who has prior arrests for assault in multiple states, according to sources.
Port Authority officers on patrol saw the attack and arrested Sassony on charges of assault and robbery, the PAPD said. He was being held on $25,000 bond, according to court records.
Robles was treated at Roosevelt Hospital and treated for serious injuries to his face and elbow, the PAPD said. He told the News he was surrounded by passersby who did nothing to help him and instead used their cellphones to tape the altercation.
“People were watching and they were having a good time filming,” Robles told the Daily News from his hospital bed.
Reps from Carnegie Deli declined to comment.
Sassony has been arrested for assault three times in Delaware — twice in 1997 and again in 2004, the PAPD said.
Last year, he was arrested in Las Vegas for marijuana possession and drunken driving that January and again for battery in November, the PAPD said.
