Brooklyn

79-Year-Old NYC Jeweler Clinging to Life After $100K Robbery Beating

Shawn Cohen said his dad was trying to close up when robbers forced their way into the jewelry store and beat the 79-year-old within an inch of his life, before trying to hide the man in the subfloor of the shop

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A 79-year-old man has been in the intensive care unit with a brain bleed since a pair of violent robbers beat the grandfather and longtime Brooklyn jewelry store owner in a $100,000 heist.

Shawn Cohen said his father, Manny, was trying to lock up the store in Prospect Lefferts Gardens around 5 p.m Friday when two men barged inside and beat the man within an inch of his life.

"We just pray and we put the faith in god and the nurses and doctors here," Cohen said from his dad's hospital Sunday.

His father's screams can be heard on the shop's surveillance camera, which also captured the alleged suspects ransacking the shop for more than 20 minutes.

"You gotta take all the rings," one of the suspects can be heard saying to the other. The brazen duo walked out with trays of jewelry, one of them saying their pockets were stuffed.

The New York Police Department released an image of the two men early Sunday in hopes someone can help identify them.

Two men wanted for beating Manny Cohen, a longtime Brooklyn jewelry store owner.
Handout
Two men wanted for beating Manny Cohen, a longtime Brooklyn jewelry store owner.

Cohen knew something was wrong when his father did not call after work Friday like he usually does. He checked the camera in the store from home and found the unthinkable.

"I scroll back even further and I see they're actually fighting with my father, beating him up," he said. "They almost beat him to death just to rob the store."

Cohen said officers found his father when the robbers tried to hide him under the subfloor.

"It's heartbreaking this can happen to anyone's father," Cohen said. "We need to wake up as a city, we need to wake up. This is not normal."

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