More details have emerged about the Upper East Side jewelry store robbery that left a 71-year-old man dead. The gunman entered the R. S. Durant shop on Madison Avenue at around 12:20 pm yesterday, tossed canvas bags at victim Henry Menahem and another 49-year-old worker, and told the employees to stuff the bags with jewelry. When both workers refused, the perp popped the magazine out of his 9-milimeter semiautomatic pistol and showed them that the weapon was loaded, the Times reports. "You think I'm kidding? This is real," he said, according to NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
The robber then reinserted the magazine and fired a single shot, which struck Menahem in the chest. The gunman ordered the other employee to fill the bags, but the worker reportedly said: "I want to call 911 for an ambulance first." The perp refused, knocked a glass display case from the wall, and started grabbing diamond necklaces and other jewels. He then put one bag inside the other and fled south toward E. 75th Street. No arrests have been made.
Friends described Menahem as an Orthodox Syrian Jew and "a gentleman" who had three adult daughters and "many grandchildren." A woman who answered the door at his Long Branch, New Jersey home told the press: "The family is in shock." Though other publications report that the value of the stolen goods remains unclear, the Post says the perp got away with more than 20 pieces of jewelry worth more than $1 million. The robber is said to be a 5-foot-10 black man in his 30s last spotted in a blue wool coat, black shoes, gray pants, a scarf, sunglasses and black gloves. According to the tabloid, customers typically had to be buzzed into the shop, but the buzzer "was on the fritz."
