A 22-year-old man was allegedly stabbed by a panhandler in front of a Queens Village pawn shop last week and the suspect remains on the run.
The victim was inside Gem Pawnbrokers at 216-15 Jamaica Ave. at around 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11 when a stranger approached him and asked for money. The victim refused and walked out of the pawn shop and the suspect followed him and pulled out a knife stabbing him in the back of his neck and his left hand, causing severe lacerations, police said. The assailant ran off in an unknown direction.
EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed the victim to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset where he was listed in stable condition. Police from the 105th Precinct in Queens Village are still searching for the perpetrator.
The NYPD released a surveillance image of the suspect on Friday and described him as having a light complexion, approximately 5’10” tall with a medium build. He was wearing a black coat over a blue hooded sweatshirt with “Polo” in red and white lettering across the chest, dark-colored pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website, on Twitter @NYPDTips.
As of Jan 14, the 105th Precinct has reported 16 felony assaults so far in 2024, one fewer than the 17 reported at the same point last year, a decrease of 5.9%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
