Brooklyn Man Successfully Fights Armed Robber To Keep Ring
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A ring worth about $600 nearly cost a Brooklyn man his life.
As CBS2's Scott Rapoport reported, the victim fought to keep the jewelry out of the hands of an armed robber.
"I was scared, man," said Larry Gonzalez. "I wasn't even thinking at the time when I reacted, you know?"
Around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, March 22, Gonzalez and his girlfriend were confronted by a gunman outside his apartment on Adelphi Street in Fort Greene. The robber demanded money, which Gonzalez said he would have given the suspect to save their lives.
The problem was that he had no money with him.
"I didn't have money, no," he said. "I didn't have no money on me but a debit card."
After going through Gonzalez's backpack searching for anything of value, he said the mugger then noticed a pinky ring he had on his hand at the time. The suspect demanded that Gonzalez turn over the ring.
And that, Gonzalez said, was something he just couldn't do.
"I'm just like, 'Nah, man, I'm not giving you that, like, I can't give it to you,'" he said.
Gonzalez said the ring – 14-karat gold ring with two diamond hearts -- was a promise ring of sorts that he was going to give to his girlfriend, Natacha Charles. It was a symbol of their love.
And Gonzalez said when he refused to give it up, "That's when he got mad, and that's when hit me in the side of the face with the gun."
Gonzalez told CBS2's Rapoport he fought back to save himself and the woman he loves.
"I just slammed him against the tree -- waved his hand in the air. The gun dropped," he said. "I just started beating him with the gun. He found some way to grab me. I found some way to grab him. We tussled on the floor. The gun dropped again."
Gonzalez said when the gun dropped, he kicked it over to his girlfriend and told her to run to a nearby deli and have them call 911.
When she did, police rushed to the scene and arrested the gunman -- Milton Simon, 42 – who was charged with robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
"It wasn't bravery. It wasn't nothing. It was just, you know, a quick reaction of just trying to live," Gonzalez said. "He had a gun to my face. What can I do?"
On Friday night, Gonzalez said, the ring was where it belongs -- on the finger of the woman he loves.
Police said Simon had actually robbed another man at gunpoint just an hour before attacking Gonzalez.
