Queens Store Clerk Choked, Stabbed In Neck During Robbery
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are looking for a man who they say choked and dragged a 21-year-old store clerk before another suspect stabbed the victim in the neck.
The incident happened inside a Rego Park, Queens store on June 15.
Victim Raed Ali is still too shaken up to come back to work after spending more than five days in the ICU, CBS2's Marc Liverman reported Wednesday. Surveillance video captured the terrifying seconds as he was attacked.
The video shows an arm right around the victim's neck and choking him so tight you can see the store employee struggling to escape.
"He was choked almost to death and while he was choked he lost conscious," Ali's brother, Riad Ali, said.
The video shows that the attack didn't just stop after he was choked. Raed Ali was later slammed down to the floor and dragged across the store aisle. What you don't see on the video is what follows -- the victim getting stabbed in the neck.
"They stabbed him while he lost conscious, so he couldn't even defend himself or anything," Riad Ali said.
It all went down inside Sam's News and Candy Store on 63rd Road near 99th Street. Police said the suspects got away with more than $2,000 in cash from the register. Raed Ali was rushed to the hospital.
"The stab wounds went right here in the neck, right below the chin," his brother said.
The suspect accused of stabbing Raed Ali was apprehended and identified as 33-year-old Christopher Castellano, but police are still looking for the man who choked and dragged him.
"He's still on the run, but he'll get his. I have faith in the system," Riad Ali said.
At one point, you can see the suspect look up and straight into the camera as he's choking him. Riad Ali said he just wants his brother's attacker caught.
"I want him to do life. That's what I want, because he wanted to take my brother's life, so I want him to do life," he said.
Riad Ali said his brother recognized at least one of his attackers, who he said used to hang around the store.
Anyone with any information is asked to call NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website, by Tweeting @NYPDTips or by texting a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.
