The two robbers, with faces covered in medical masks, emerged from a silver sedan and came charging into the deli, whacking an employee in the head with a gun before he could even consider cooperating.
"When he hit him with the gun, he thinks they shot him," the store owner said.
The worker, in his 20's wasn't shot, but he fell just out of frame as one robber stood on the counter threatening the three workers with the gun, while the other robber grabbed the cash.
As the robbers made their getaway, the owner of the Gourmet Deli on Morris Park Avenue, who had left minutes earlier, got the call about what happened and called the police who canvassed the neighborhood.
"I go with two cops looking around. We can't find these guys. They're gone," the owner said.
Police say the burglars have been busy the last two weeks, since Sunday, July 7, robbing three delis and bodegas in the Bronx and two in Queens.
In each instance, they show the same gun and get away with money.
The robbery on Tuesday seems to be the only one where an employee was physically attacked. The store owner, who preferred not to show his face, says the violent assault was unnecessary and could have been deadly. The worker likely would have cooperated.
"Now a guy is three days in the hospital. For what? No reason," the owner said.
The owner told Eyewitness News it's the first time anything like this has ever happened at his store. There's never been so much as a fight.
He wants the suspects caught before another small business is hit, saying the way they were acting made it seem like they thought they could get away with it.
"They think right now that they can do whatever they want. Nobody can control them," the owner said.
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