Victim speaks out after violent chokehold robbery caught on camera in Belmont
BELMONT, Bronx -- Police released video of a violent robbery in the Bronx, during which the victim was put in a choke hold and wrestled to the ground.
Now that victim is speaking out exclusively to Eyewitness News.
It happened last Saturday around 5:30 a.m. on Cambreleng Avenue in the Belmont section. The victim, 49-year-old Apolinar Pimentel, a father of two, said he's walked the same route nearly every day for the past 25 years. He was heading to his job in a kitchen at a local restaurant in Connecticut.
Authorities say two suspects attacked him, rifling through his pockets while punching and kicking him in the head. They fled with his cell phone.
Pimentel was taken to the hospital and treated for bruising and swelling to his face and head. He still has a black eye and several scrapes and cuts to his elbows and knees.
"I said, 'Help, help,'" he said. "Now it's a little more better. But you know, I have to work for my family. I have to do that. I gotta go for my daughter, you know?"
He said he never saw their faces, but he is speaking out because he hopes someone will recognize them and call police.
"I want an arrest because I don't want somebody to go there and maybe the guys have a knife or something that kills people," Pimentel said. "That's no good if you have a family like me. That's no good that those people are on the street. Look at me. I'm working for my family. I can't believe it, this thing."
Pimentel still hasn't been able to go back to work since the attack, so he hasn't been paid. Fortunately, he kept his wallet in his backpack, which the suspects did not take.
The first suspect is described as a black man, 18 to 25 years old, last seen wearing a black hooded sweater and black pants. The second suspect is described as a Hispanic man, 18 to 25 years old, with his hair in a ponytail last seen wearing a gray hooded sweater, light colored pants and black sneakers.
Anyone with information in regards 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).
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