Police say a man walked into Seaport Buffet on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay shortly after 5 p.m. and began attacking unsuspecting victims with a hammer, sending customers and workers fleeing for their lives.
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Some of them ran into Randazzo's Clam Bar across the street to seek shelter.
"We let them in, and they said a guy came in crazy with a hammer and started hammering random people," owner Samantha Randazzo said. "One of the workers came in here and said he started screaming and went crazy."
Officials identified the chef who was killed as 34-year old Fufai Pun.
The restaurant's manager, 50-year-old Tsz Mat Pung, and the owner, 61-year-old Kheong Ng-Thang, were critically injured and taken to NYU Langone-Brooklyn Hospital.
Calls for help were immediate, and eyewitnesses said they saw the attacker flee into the parking lot behind the restaurant. He did not get far.
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"He was screaming crazy words, like 'I'm killing everybody,' he was just screaming crazy things," Randazzo said. "They said he went in a city uniform, and he came in and just went crazy."
The suspect, 34-year-old Arthur Martunovich, of Brooklyn, was taken into custody on 19th Street and Emmons Avenue, about two blocks from the restaurant. A hammer was recovered at the scene.
He is facing murder, attempted murder and weapons charges.
Martunovich was reportedly making statements upon his arrest indicating he was emotionally disturbed. He is not believed to have a connection to the restaurant, although he lives a few blocks away.
While this is Martunovich's first arrest, he was investigated in connection to a prior assault in 2016 but never charged. He was also reported as a victim of assaults in 2016 and 2004.
No arrests were made in either case.
He will undergo a psychiatric evaluation, but investigators said it appears to have been an unprovoked attack.
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