By Courtney Dentch
Ronald Kissoon, 44, was parking his van in front of his 178th Street home about 11 p.m. Saturday when a man approached him and shot him once in the left cheek, police said.As Kissoon's son Randy, 16, ran outside to help his father, the mugger bent to remove a gold chain and bracelet and a wallet from Kissoon valued at about $6,000, Randy Kissoon said Tuesday.”I just came home two minutes before I heard the shot,” Randy Kissoon said. “I ran downstairs and heard jingling, like keys and then I saw a man taking off his jewelry.”The man kicked Ronald Kissoon where he lay on the sidewalk and started walking down the residential block. He broke into a sprint when he heard Ronald Kissoon yell, “I got shot,” Randy Kissoon said.”I saw him lying in blood,” Randy Kissoon said of his father. “I was holding him up with a towel across his cheek.”The bullet entered his left cheek and went straight through his right cheek, shattering a few teeth, breaking his jaw and nearly splitting his tongue in half, Randy Kissoon said. Ronald Kissoon was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital and was undergoing surgery Tuesday to repair the damage, his son said.”He can't see, hear or talk because he's still asleep,” Randy Kissoon said. “They say he will be okay, but it will take time.”Randy Kissoon thinks the man may have been hiding down the street, since he went inside the house just before his father parked his van after visiting a relative.”I didn't see anybody on the block,” he said.Ronald Kissoon emigrated to the United States more than 10 years ago and obtained his citizenship, Randy Kissoon said. Kissoon owns his own home improvement business, which he runs out of his house, his son said.Since the shooting the Kissoon family has become wary of the usually quiet neighborhood, Randy Kissoon said.”My uncles and everyone say we're moving,” he said. “I don't think my father will live here when he recovers, but knowing him, he won't want to move.”Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
