Armed Robber Strikes Again, Uses Stun Gun on Store Worker in West Village: Police

Police say the armed robber in a baseball cap wanted in a series of bodega robberies since November has struck again, this time at a West Village shop where he tied up the store clerk and shocked him with a stun gun.
 
The suspect walked into the Two Friends store at 46 Eighth Ave. at about 10:20 p.m. Sunday, showed a gun and ordered the worker to the floor, police said. 
 
He zip-tied the victim's hands and buzzed him with a stun gun several times before running away with $1,800 in cash, seven cartons of Newport cigarettes and 29 lottery scratch-off tickets, according to police. 
 
The worker, who asked to remain anonymous, told NBC 4 New York the robber administered the stun gun on him even after the worker gave him what he wanted. 
 
"He pulled out the Taser, and he shocked me like two or three times in the back," he said. "I was screaming, and he said, 'Don't scream, or I'm going to shoot you.'" 
 
The suspect has robbed one bodega a month on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side since November, police say, tying up employees before making off with cash, cigarettes and lottery tickets.
 
The first robbery linked to the suspect was the evening before Thanksgiving, when he entered a store on 84th Street and Lexington Avenue at about 8:30 p.m.
 
Police say he took more than $2,000 in cash and more than than $1,500 in scratch-off lotto tickets and pre-paid phone cards.
 
The following month, on a Tuesday evening on the Upper West Side, the suspect robbed a grocery store at 72nd Street and Broadway.
 
In January, he hit a newsstand at 77th Street and Broadway on a Thursday night, police say. There, he took more than $4,000.
 
On Saturday, Feb. 15, the suspect was back on the Upper East Side, at a bodega on 87th Street and First Avenue, where he made off with $2,000 in cash and cigarettes.
 
In each case he has displayed a gun, police say. In most of the robberies, he was wearing a Chicago White Sox hat, which was black with the word "Chicago" across the front. He was wearing a New York Yankees cap in the Sunday robbery. 
 
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS. 
 
-- Checkey Beckford contributed to this report. 
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