‘I Didn't Know What to Do. So I Just Stabbed Him:' Chilling Details Emerge in Triple NYC Attack

"The lady starts screaming. Honestly, I didn't know what to do so I just stabbed him."

Those are the words, in sum and substance, that 30-year-old Robert Whack offered by way of explanation for a brutal robbery attack on a 61-year-old Asian woman and a pair of father-son good Samaritans who ran out to help her in Queens Saturday, according to a criminal complaint obtained by News 4 Wednesday.

Whack, of Brooklyn, told a police officer he had only walked into the woman outside the father and son's Elmhurst pizzeria, at the corner of Judge Street and Baxter Avenue, around 9 p.m. that night and her belongings fell, the complaint says.

He says he picked them up -- and the woman started screaming. Whack's son, who was with him at the time, ran away when he saw the Sulijovics coming to intervene. Whack ran, too, he says, because he heard someone say, "Go get my gun," according to the complaint. Plus, he says he's an admitted pot and heroin user.

The Queens district attorney added second-degree attempted murder to a laundry list of charges against Whack. He is also accused of multiple counts of assault and robbery, including first-degree charges, as well as criminal possession of a weapon and a controlled substance. The latter charges stem from a knife allegedly recovered from Whack's jacket pocket, which the complaint says he admitted using in the stabbing of all three victims, and nearly 40 little envelopes full of heroin.

The knife had what appeared to be blood on it, according to the complaint. Prosecutors allege Whack used it to stab 38-year-old Louie Suljovic and his 68-year-old father a total of 10 times amid their well-intended effort to help the victim, whom they ran to save when they heard her screaming outside their pizza shop.

The woman told investigators the chaos started when a man pushed her from behind and yanked her purse from her shoulder, according to the complaint. The father and son ran out to find Whack and a second suspect, 18-year-old Supreme Gooding, allegedly robbing the woman.

Then the suspects turned their attention to the two men, the complaint continues, delivering the bulk of the injuries to the father. The 68-year-old was stabbed nine times in various parts of his body. He suffered a punctured lung and needed a chest tube inserted to inflate it. So did his 38-year-old son, who was stabbed once.

The woman the two men had run to help also was stabbed in the back, though she didn't even realize it until after the suspects had run off, the complaint says. She was treated at a hospital and is expected to be OK. The younger Sulijovic is expected to be OK, too, and he says he can only hope the same for his father.

Speaking from his hospital bed Tuesday, the 38-year-old Suljovic said he wouldn't hesitate to intervene again if needed, despite the injuries to him and his father.

He says he couldn't watch idly as the attack on the woman continued. She was older and helpless, Suljovic said. He also says police told him one of the suspects was wanted in connection with another anti-Asian attack the week before.

Suljovic insisted more action be taken to curb attacks against New York City's Asian community. Victims are being targeted, he said, and claimed, "no one is doing anything about it." Asked if he'd step up again, Suljovic said, "100%."

Gooding was awaiting arraignment as of early Wednesday. It wasn't immediately clear if he or Whack had attorneys who could comment on their cases.