Two teens brandishing what appeared to be guns walked into an Elmhurst electronics store on Tuesday and attacked the owner and his wife while robbing the place, police said.
The teenage thieves, Alex Diaz, 15, of Brooklyn, and Ronald Espinoza, 14, of Queens, walked into JC Electronics on Grand Avenue at 4 p.m. and said they were going to rob the store, cops said. Both boys, who were carrying air pistols, then went behind the counter where the owner, a 38-year-old man was, and started struggling with him.
Diaz and Espinoza then began to strike the owner in the head with their pistols and tried to cut him with a knife, according to police. When the owner’s wife tried to help him, she was also assaulted.
Their daughter, in the meantime, had fled to the basement and called 911.
The teens took $468 from the register and cellphones that were being repaired in the store, cops said. They then fled toward the subway station at Queens Boulevard, with the owner chasing them.
A passerby, who saw the fleeing suspects and the owner running after them, directed responding officers to the subway station and the pair was apprehended. Police found three air pistols, a gravity knife and the stolen goods on the teens.
The owner and his wife were taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where they were treated for lacerations to their heads and faces, and released, police said.
Diaz and Espinoza were both charged with robbery, assault, criminal use of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property.
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