Two workers at a Rockaway Park deli have been arrested for allegedly attacking and choking a drunk man who barged into the store early Sunday morning and began cursing, according to police sources.
Cops got a call about an assault-in-progress at Pickles & Pies Food Market & Deli in Rockaway Park, Queens, at about 5:10 a.m. on Sunday morning, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
When they arrived, cops found an injured 31-year-old man who had been accosted by two employees after an argument, police said.
The victim was taken to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition until he suffered some sort of “medical episode,” cops said.
Afterward, he was listed in critical-but-stable condition.
Police have arrested the two employees, sources told The Post. They charged one with strangulation, two counts of assault and one count of harassment, while the other was charged with two counts of assault and one count of harassment.
Cops did not identify the suspects but said one was 24 years old and the other was 23 years old.
Police wouldn’t say how the argument started. But a friend of the victim who witnessed the altercation told The Post that the victim came in drunk and started the trouble.
“He was cursing everybody out — nobody said anything to him, he just came in cursing, like you do when you’re drunk,” the witness said. “He was real drunk.”
“One of the [employees] came over and started pushing him, trying to push him outside,” he continued. “That’s when the fight started. Another one rushed over and got him in the chokehold. He was trying to pull him down. He pulled him down to the ground. Then he just stopped breathing.”
The deli owner — who declined to give his name — said he hadn’t seen the security footage of the confrontation because he was having technical issues. But a specialist from the NYPD was coming to help, he told The Post.
The manager of a store across the street — which is owned by the same person — described the victim to The Post as a “Spanish guy who comes in drunk.”
“He came in after lots of drinking and he make problem,” the manager said. “We want to see the video.”
Kathleen Morris, a 79-year-old home health aid who lives nearby, called the deli “our best market on the strip.”
“These are the hard-working, dedicated people that are open 24 hours, 7 days a week,” Morris said. “The employees are so nice, so over-the-top helpful and courteous. Just one nicer than the next, it’s incredible. I’m horrified that they had to deal with this.”
Morris added that she’s been requesting for years that beat cops patrol the area — especially at night.
“I won’t come down here when it’s dark, when there are no cops around,” she said. “They need to be here out on foot, around here.”
There were no updates on the victim’s condition. But his friend, the eyewitness, said he wasn’t doing good.
“He’s in bad, bad shape,” the man said. “That’s what the cops told me an hour ago, that he’s in bad, bad shape. This was stupid.. totally not necessary.”
“The f—king cops were two blocks away,” he added. “Why didn’t they just call the cops?”
