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Woman Sucker Punched by Stranger Outside Queens Deli Dies, NYPD Says

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | February 22, 2017 12:09pm
 Eve Gentillon, 69, suffered severe head injuries after Richard
Eve Gentillon, 69, suffered severe head injuries after Richard "Kwasi" Springer punched her in the face on Oct. 15, police said. She died last Saturday.
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Handout, Sutphin King Deli and Grill and the NYPD

QUEENS —  A 69-year-old woman who was punched in the head last October by a man trying to steal a can of beer from a Jamaica bodega has died, and the man who attacked her could face upgraded charges, police said.

Eve Gentillon died on Saturday, four months after she was attacked by Richard "Kwasi" Springer, 28, on Oct. 15, 2016, outside the Sutphin King Deli at 107-60 Sutphin Blvd., near 108th Avenue, authorities said.

According to Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's Office, the victim died from “complications of traumatic brain injury due to blunt impacts.” Her death has been determined to be a homicide, Bolcer said.

Police arrested Springer on Oct. 31 and initially charged him with robbery and assault, but those charges could now be upgraded, pending a grand jury's decision, officials said.

Police said that on Oct. 15 just after 8 a.m., Springer snatched a Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita and began arguing with store employees over the price of the beer.

He punched one of the clerks in the face, before leaving the store and sucker-punching Gentillon, who was on her way home from church and happened to be standing outside the deli.

Gentillon, a retired home health aide, fell onto the sidewalk and suffered brain hemorrhaging, officials and her family said.

She later had to undergo emergency surgery and had a piece of her skull removed due to a subdural hematoma in her brain, authorities said.