Brooklyn Man, 81, Fights Back During Robbery, Stabbing
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A suspect allegedly stabbed an elderly Brooklyn man who might have seemed like an easy target for mugging, but the victim did not give up without a fight.
As CBS2's Matt Kozar reported, Michael Kogan, 81, defines toughness.
He fought off the alleged assailant in his Sheepshead Bay neighborhood, after being stabbed in the chest.
Kogan was still recovering from the stab wound Thursday night, and he lay in bed for most of his interview with Kozar.
"He said to me, 'Give me your money.' I said, 'I don't have money'," Kogan said.
The attack happened Wednesday on East 19th Street in Brooklyn. Kogan was heading to the doctor's office when he said a man on a bike pulled up next to him and demanded cash.
But Kogan didn't have any, and a struggle ensued. Kogan said the would be-robber pulled out a switch blade and stabbed him in the chest.
"He took the knife again, and he tried to cut my hands," Kogan said.
When an undercover police officer found the injured Kogan on the sidewalk, Kogan gave him a description of the suspect.
"One guy from the undercover asked me which way he left," Kogan said. "I said he left straight down."
Police caught a 35-year-old suspect a few blocks away. Kogan said he identified the man while lying on a stretcher in the ambulance.
Kogan spent time in the Russian army, and he fled his native Ukraine when the Nazis invaded. He has lived in the U.S. for 40 years, and has run two successful restaurants.
When asked if he felt lucky, Kogan said with a laugh: "I try to forget, but you come in. You remind me."
But Kogan said he is afraid of nothing.
