Christmas Day Stabbing Around Corner from Amadou Diallo Home

Police are searching for this man in connection with a stabbing inside a grocery store around the corner from where Amadou Diallo lived. 

By Dan Gesslein

Bronx Voice

December 27, 2022

BRONX - A bodega customer who tried to fight off a pickpocket was stabbed inside a grocery store around the corner from where Amadou Diallo lived. 

At around 6 am on Christmas day, a 43-year-old man was inside Zack Deli and Snacks located at 1498 Westchester Avenue. Another man came in, approached the customer and lifted the man’s wallet out of his back pocket. When the customer noticed his wallet with $50 inside was missing and the suspect had it in hand, he tried to get it back. 

The men struggled. Then suddenly the pickpocket pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim in the left shoulder. He ran out of the store empty handed. 

The victim was taken to Jacobi Medical Center for treatment.  

Police released surveillance video of the suspect from inside the store. The attacker is described as a man, age 20 to 25, with a dark complexion. Cops say he is 6 feet tall and weighs 190 pounds. He was last seen wearing a multi-color hoodie jacket (orange/black/white), black jeans, white and orange sneakers, black winter hat, black face mask and carrying a black book bag. 

The store sits around the corner from where Amadou Diallo was gunned down during a police shooting in 1999. The unarmed African immigrant was shot by police when they mistook his wallet for a gun. The shooting touched off a wave of shootings and calls for reforms. 

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/

 or on Twitter @NYPDTips. 

All calls are strictly confidential.