NYPD searching for man who stabbed deli worker in the neck in East Harlem
EAST HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) -- Police are searching for a man who stabbed a deli worker in East Harlem on Wednesday morning.
"You would figure this man was just stabbed in the neck. He's wounded. He comes out and he chases this guy," Fernando Mateo from the United Bodega Association said.
A man was captured on store surveillance entering the store and loitering for a few minutes before asking the clerk for money.
It happened at Food Market deli near 3rd Avenue and E.116th Street in East Harlem.
The suspect goes off camera and emerges waving a knife and seems to be arguing with the person behind the counter.
Two customers who were caught in the middle stopped in their tracks.
"He goes over to the door, with the knife cuts Mohmammed in the neck," a witness said.
"I wasn't expecting that this guy was going to pull out a long knife, long screwdriver and lunge at him." Mateo said.
A few seconds after the suspect leaves, the victim is seen running out of the store behind him.
With adrenaline pumping, the 24-year-old immigrant from North Africa who was stabbed is seen charging back into the bodega where he works with his chest bloody and using his shirt to apply pressure to his neck.
He was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem where he is expected to survive.
Police say the suspect is a known homeless man and has had many ongoing disputes about shoplifting at that store.
"Thank God he's still alive. But the problem is, how do you prevent this? You prevent it by making sure that these people that commit these types of crimes are locked up," Mateo said.
The suspect fled southbound on 3rd Avenue and has not been caught.
The investigation is ongoing.
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