SOUTH JAMAICA — A Maryland mom checking into a hotel near JFK Thursday night to keep her daughter company the night before she was scheduled to fly to South Africa was shot after punching a robber who began attacking her daughter in the parking lot, police said.
Andrea Koller, 53, is in critical condition after a masked gunman shot her in the chest and pistol-whipped her 20-year-old daughter during a robbery at the Hampton Inn near John F. Kennedy International Airport, sources said.
The attack began shortly after Koller and her daughter, Meredith Stifter, drove into the parking lot of the hotel at 144-10 135th St., near 145th Street at approximately 8 p.m., sources said.
The pair were planning to spend their remaining time together before Stifter, a Lehigh University student, caught a Friday morning flight to Cape Town, South Africa, where she was going to spend a semester abroad, sources said.
Koller parked her 2007 Hyundai and walked into the hotel's check in area, leaving Stifter alone in the passenger's seat, with the keys in the car, sources said. Suddenly, a man wearing a mask and holding a gun got into the driver's seat and demanded Stifter hand over her money, sources said.
"I don't have the money. My mom does," Stifter replied.
The robber hit Stifter's face with his gun and demanded she hand over four rings on her fingers, before driving the car to another area of the parking lot, sources said.
When the robber saw Koller returning, he told Stifter, "If your mom doesn't have the money, I will shoot you," according to sources.
He got out of the car and confronted the mother, demanding, "Give me your purse," sources said.
Koller refused, so he hit her with the gun several times, prompting her to hit back, sources said.
The suspect fired a single shot that hit Koller in the right side of her chest and exited through her shoulder, sources said.
Koller was critically injured and treated at Jamaica Hospital where she's listed in stable condition, police said Friday morning.
"Thank God she was removed to Jamaica hospital. She’ll be fine, although she still remains in critical condition," said NYPD's chief of detectives, Robert Boyce.
Stifter was given three staples for injuries to her head at the same hospital, sources said.
The gunman, carrying the Stifter's rings and Koller's purse, fled the scene in a Jetta, which investigators believe had initially trailed the victims into the hotel parking lot, sources said. Police said they had not made any arrests in the case as of Friday afternoon.
The gunman is 30, 5 feet 11 inches, and wore a black ski mask, black Columbia jacket, black pants and black sneakers, police said.
Investigators believe the getaway driver wore braids, they said.
Investigators believe the suspects are behind several recent robberies in hotel parking lots in the area on Dec. 28, Jan. 3, Jan. 5 and Jan. 9, Boyce said.
The thieves have also used a black Mercedes they stole from the Dec. 28 robbery, Boyce said.
Investigators belive that though the suspects attacked some tourists, they believe the robberies are random because they also stole from Queens residents, Boyce said.
Koller previously wrote a letter to the Baltimore Sun criticizing national gun laws for making it easy for someone to get a gun and shoot someone.
"We cannot cling to the naïve belief that we are safe merely because someone runs a background check on a gun buyer," she wrote in January 2013.
"Guns change hands and the simple truth is, more guns in more hands means more gun-based crimes," the mother added.
With reporting by Ben Fractenberg
