EAST WILLIAMSBURG — A bodega customer who'd been banned from the shop for stealing a box of coffee cakes returned and threatened to kill the owner with a large knife, police and the owner said.
The man, about 25 years old and 5-foot-9, walked into the Bushwick Deli and Grocery at 383 Bushwick Ave. around 1 p.m. on Jan. 14 gripping an approximately 12-inch knife, police said.
He was quiet when he entered, said Sultan Ghanem, 60, who was working at his son's store at the time.
But then the man went behind the counter and started yelling "I'll kill you, I'll kill you, give me the money" as he pointed the knife at him, Ghanem said.
Ghanem was pushed to the corner, he said.
"I closed my eyes," Ghanem said. "I was scared."
Ghanem said he put his arms up to protect himself. The man took an unknown amount of money from the cash register and fled.
Police are still investigating the incident. The man, who police did not identify, had a mustache and was wearing black jeans at the time.
Ghanem said he had previously banned the suspect from the store when a box filled with 25-cent coffee cakes went missing after the man entered.
The next time the man came in, Ghanem told him he would call the police if he saw him again. That was the last time Ghanem saw the man before he came back to the store with a knife, Ghanem said.
But Ghanem, who has worked in the bodega since August, shrugged off future dangers.
"I'm OK," he said.
Other notable incidents in the 90th precinct include:
► A woman who left Woodhull Hospital after receiving treatment was punched in the head right after she got out, sending her back to the hospital, police said.
The woman, 51, walked to a local convenience store after being discharged from Woodhull, located at Flushing Avenue and Broadway, around 5 p.m. on Jan. 15, police said.
After she walked out of the store, a 25-year-old woman approached her for a cigarette and cash, police said.
The victim refused, and the suspect struck her in the head, causing her to fall to the ground, police said.
The woman then took the victim's purse and threw it to a man. Both suspects then fled with the woman's property, including $25, a cellphone and a leather bag worth $50.
The victim then checked herself back into Woodhull, police said.
The female suspect is described as 5-foot-2 and 180 pounds with long black hair. Her male companion was described as 5-foot-5 and 130 pounds.
Police are still investigating the incident.
► Two people tried to rob a Hasidic man as he walked home from a synagogue last Friday, police said.
The man, 57, was walking home just around midnight on Jan. 16 on Division Avenue at Rodney Street, police said. A man and a woman came up to him and demanded money, with the woman saying "don't move, give me your money, I have a gun," police said.
She had her right hand in her right pocket, police said. Meanwhile, her male companion yelled, "Money, money, money," police said.
The victim showed that he did not have any money on him, and they let him go, police said.
The man, about 30, was 5-foot-6, had a mustache and wore black slacks and black outerwear. The woman, also about 30, wore pink slacks and a pink jacket.
No one has been arrested for the incident.
► A man was shot while sitting in the passenger seat of a car in South Williamsburg, police said.
The man, 22, was in the car driving on South Third Street near Keap Street on Jan. 12 around 7:30 a.m., police said.
A man, about 5-foot-8, walked up to the car and shot the man in the lower left rib cage. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
No one has been arrested for the incident.
