Man Suspected Of Robbing 2 Staten Island Stores At Gunpoint
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A teenage girl was robbed at gunpoint inside her parents' Staten Island grocery store, and police say the same suspect held up another store just a few weeks earlier.
Miriam Aghails, 15, was so shaken up Tuesday, she could barely speak as she described the scary scene.
"Just took it and left," she told CBS2's Marc Liverman.
The 15-year-old was sitting inside her parents' grocery store Monday evening when all of a sudden a man walked in, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and ski mask. He motioned to the register, with one hand covering something in his pocket.
Police said the suspect grabbed about $200, left the store and headed west on Metcalf Street toward Van Duzer Street.
"It's scary. I even had to take a sleeping pill last night, because I didn't want to think about," Aghails' mother, Benorie Zayzay, said. "It's very scary."
Her mother fears the gunman could come back and strike again. With good reason, since police said less than four weeks earlier on May 24, the same man robbed a store on Clove Road, holding up a 62-year-old employee.
Now, Aghails and her family are looking over their shoulders, and will be until the robber is caught.
"It's not about the money. It's about the trauma," Zayzay said.
Crime in the precinct is down 25 percent since last year, but that is no solace for the family who wants the criminal in cuffs.
Aghails said the robber isn't going to stop her from coming back to the store, though.
