Sep. 12, 2023 By Bill Parry
Two women were menaced and robbed by a BB gun-toting stranger inside their Queens Village hotel room on Sunday afternoon, according to the NYPD.
Police from the 105th Precinct in Queens Village responded to a report of the incident that went down at around 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 10, when the suspect knocked on their guest room door at the Casa Azul Hotel, located at 220-16 Jamaica Ave. A 42-year-old woman opened the door and the assailant forced his way inside the guest room, according to authorities.
He proceeded to display a BB gun to the victim and then put her in a chokehold, police said. The suspect snatched a Samsung Galaxy cellphone from the woman and then pulled out pepper spray and sprayed it on the 39-year-old woman who confronted him, police said.
The attacker fled the hotel in an unknown direction. The 42-year-old victim sustained minor injuries but refused medical attention at the crime scene, police said. The 39-year-old victim sustained nonlife-threatening injuries to her face and was transported to Long Island Jewish Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
Through Sept. 3, the 101st Precinct reported 115 robbery cases so far in 2023, 18 fewer than the 133 robbery cases reported at the same point last year, a decrease of 13.5%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
The NYPD released a surveillance photo of the suspect on Sept. 11 and described him as having a medium complexion and a medium build. He is approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and 170 pounds with black hair and a beard and mustache. He was last seen wearing a white V-neck T-shirt, black pants and black shoes.
A reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.