Workers at a Woodhaven bakery were terrorized by a gunman who stormed into their store on the night of Monday, Sept. 23, police said Wednesday.
The masked-up stranger burst into the Paneorama Italian bakery at 95-20 Jamaica Ave. at around 8 p.m. and pointed a rifle at a worker behind the counter and demanded money. The employee fled the store on foot through a rear door, police said, adding that the perpetrator proceeded to run out of the bakery empty-handed through the front door.
The gunman got into a dark-colored SUV that sped away from the scene, traveling southbound on 97th Street toward Atlantic Avenue. No injuries were reported during the attempted robbery.
The NYPD released surveillance video of the rifleman on Wednesday and described him as having a light complexion and a heavy-set build. He was last seen carrying a rifle, wearing two different dark-colored sunglasses on his head with a blue bandana covering his face, a gray T-shirt, dark-colored shorts, and dark-colored shoes.
A reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest.
Anyone with information regarding this investigation 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 at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Through Sept. 29, the 102nd Precinct has reported 130 robberies so far in 2024, four fewer than the 134 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 3%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
