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Patron Cut Restaurant Manager's Head With Cane After Dine-and-Dash: NYPD

 A patron struck Soba Noodle Azuma's manager in the head with a cane after his group dined-and-dashed, police said.
A patron struck Soba Noodle Azuma's manager in the head with a cane after his group dined-and-dashed, police said.
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DNAinfo/Maya Rajamani

MIDTOWN — A customer struck the manager of a Japanese restaurant in the head with a cane — leaving him with bloody cuts that required several staples — after the staffer tried to stop him and his dinner companions from leaving without paying, police said.

Patrons Briana Rillie, 20, Manuel Alarcon, 19, and Laurencia Jean-Cadet, 20, ordered food and a bottle of Dassai sake at Soba Noodle Azuma at 251 W. 55th St., around 6:35 p.m. on May 20, a complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.

But after finishing their meals, the trio left the eatery without paying their $150 bill and took the bottle with them, the DA’s office said.

When Soba Noodle Azuma’s 60-year-old manager realized they had left, he ran after them to try to get the bottle back and stop them from leaving, the complaint said.

When the manager tried to hold onto the patrons until police showed up, Rillie "repeatedly" struck the manager in the head with a cane, police and the DA’s office said.

The manager was left with “heavy bleeding” and lacerations that required staples as a result of the attack, police said.

Officers who responded to the scene stopped one of the patrons at gunpoint in a courtyard at 357 W. 55th St., and the manager was able to identify the patron in a lineup, the NYPD said.

The two other customers were later identified by the manager and several witnesses, and an officer also found a cane in the courtyard, police said.

The three patrons were each arrested and charged with robbery, the complaint said.

All three were released without bail the day after the incident and are expected to next appear in court on July 25, the DA's office said.

On Wednesday, Soba Noodle Azuma’s manager, who declined to provide his name, said he was back to work after getting stitches at Mount Sinai West Hospital.

He said he followed the three patrons out of the restaurant after a waiter told him they hadn’t paid, but when he caught up to them, they claimed they hadn’t dined and dashed.

“They were screaming and yelling, ‘We were going to come back to pay for it,’” he said. “It didn’t make sense.”

He said he tried to get the full sake bottle back and grabbed one of the women’s bags, at which point she pulled away and said, “Don’t touch me.”

The next thing he knew, one of the patrons was attacking him, he said.

“He assaulted me, he hit [me] by cane, a couple times, I don’t remember,” he said.

“It’s dangerous,” he said of his decision to confront the patrons, adding that next time he would film an incident of this sort on his phone instead.

An attorney for Alarcon on Wednesday said the patron "denies ever leaving the restaurant with the intention of not having the bill paid."

“...[I]f there was any wrongdoing in this incident, it was instigated and provoked by the staff of the Soba Noodles restaurant,” Anthony Graniere, of the Legal Aid Society, wrote in an email.

Attorneys for Rillie and Jean-Cadet did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.