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Burglar Who Threatened to Stab Family, Dead After They Restrained Him: NYPD

By Gwynne Hogan | December 5, 2016 11:06am
 A man who threatened to stab people inside a car service office he was robbing is dead after several people held him down while waiting for police to arrive on scene, officials said.
A man who threatened to stab people inside a car service office he was robbing is dead after several people held him down while waiting for police to arrive on scene, officials said.
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DNAinfo/Gwynne Hogan

BUSHWICK — A man who threatened to stab a 17-year-old and an 11-year-old inside a car service office he was try to burglarize, died after the boys and their father held him down while waiting for police to arrive on scene, officials said.

The 39-year-old suspect may have been choked to death at Vision Car Service at 582 Bushwick Ave., police said, though the medical examiners office will soon determine his official cause of death.

The altercation took place just before 6 a.m. on Sunday morning, police said.

The burglar, whose name was not immediately released, broke into Vision Car Service and the noise woke up a family living next door to the office, police said.

The 17-year-old boy went outside to see what the noise was about and confronted the man who tried to hit him, police said.

The two struggled and soon his 39-year-old father and 11-year-old brother came to his aid, and the three grappled with the man, in a fight that spilled out onto the street, police said.

The trio managed to pin the man down while he shouted that he would stab them, police said, though no knife was found at the scene.

Police and emergency workers soon arrived at the chaotic to the scene just after 6 a.m. and took the man to Woodhull Hospital in cardiac arrest and he later died, officials said.

A second person was taken to the hospital, the FDNY said, though no further information was available about that person.

A worker at Vision Car Service who declined to give his name said the office would have been open at the time of the burglary, though he didn't know what happened.

A worker on duty at the time of the incident wasn't coming back, the owner told him, but wouldn't elaborate.

The medical examiners office didn't return a request for comment immediately.

Police said no arrests were expected in the case, but the investigation is ongoing.