KIPS BAY — An elderly store owner who was stabbed repeatedly in the chest by a robber managed to chase the thief out of his 27th Street shop using a chair, according to police and witnesses.
The attacker, who can be seen in police video released Monday night, walked into Apel’s New Day Tailor at 203 E. 27th St. at about 12:40 p.m. and demanded money from the 78-year-old shop owner at knifepoint, police said.
The store owner initially refused to fork over the dough, and a struggle ensued in which the suspect stabbed the shop owner in the chest and slashed his face, and took $80 in cash, an NYPD spokesman said.
Despite the brutal knifing, the tailor was able to fight off the attacker with a chair, said Matthew Moreno, who was working in the barbershop next door and witnessed the aftermath.
Surveillance video of the street showed the tailor forcing the suspect out of the store and chasing him off with the chair aloft, according to ABC7.
When Moreno came outside, he saw paramedics tending to the shop owner, who was lying on his back, holding his hands to a wound on his stomach and bleeding from a gash on his face, he said.
“He looked like he was in shock, but he seemed OK,” Moreno said. “He was trying to describe the guy to police, and it looked like there had been a fight inside the shop.”
Emergency responders took the tailor to Bellevue Hospital with non life-threatening injuries and in stable condition, according to an FDNY spokesman.
The suspect is in his 40s, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs roughly 170 pounds, police said. He was last seen with a beard, a blue hooded coat, blue jeans and black sneakers, police said.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).
