Officials say the incident happened around 3 a.m. outside Ray's Candy Shop on Tuesday.
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Ray Asghar Ghahraman is still nursing a black eye Thursday but returned back to work after the attack.
On Saturday, officials announced that Luis Peroza, 39, was arrested in connection with the attack.
"Out of no where pulls out a piece of rope with a rubber ball on the end, and hits me right here, I'm like wow," employee Gabe Thorne said.
When the suspect ran inside, Ray was also hit.
"This guy wanted to cause harm for the glee of it to everyone's favorite grandpa, I don't think so," Thorne said.
Ray said he didn't want to go to the hospital, but he remains in pain.
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Instead he just wants to work. It's what he knows.
And he is beloved. A mural celebrates his birthday and when he went bankrupt last year, the community bailed him out.
From egg creams to milk shakes to beignets, he has been serving up nostalgia since 1974.
In those five decades, there have been shoplifters, but it wasn't until this week that Asghar Ghahraman became a victim of violence.
But even this incident hasn't soured Ray -- an attitude befitting of a candy shop owner.
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"I love New York, there's 99 percent good, there's one bad," he said.
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