Surveillance footage captured the moment a gunman tells a little girl sitting on her father’s lap not to make a sound during a terrifying stick-up at the family’s Queens deli.
The 9-year-old was sitting on her dad, Marreb Alamatare, 27, when a pair of masked thieves walked into the Yemeni-owned Maspeth Deli and Grocery on 56th Avenue near 60th Street around 8:30 p.m. Jan. 28, surveillance video released Tuesday shows.
The man with the gun places his finger to his lips, telling the child to keep quiet.
“One guy came in with a gun, he told [Marreb] to raise his hands. He said, ‘don’t move.’ His daughter was screaming behind him,” said the little girl’s grandfather Taher Alamatare, 62. “One guy was standing, looking for customers.”
Taher said, “They came straight up to the cashier like they knew he was only by himself with his daughter. They were not afraid someone was in the back. They knew where the money was.”
The gunman then forces both victims to lie on the ground, empties the register, and steals a cash-filled cigar box from under the counter, cops said.
The crooks made off with approximately $3,000 in cash, police said.
Neither the girl nor her father were harmed during the robbery that shook up the family.
“I don’t care about the money. The money I can replace. I’m glad my son and granddaughter are OK. Their lives I cannot replace,” Taher said.
The grandfather said that his granddaughter spends a lot of time with her dad at the store after school since her mom is back home in Yemen raising her 5-year-old sister.
“She is so close to him,” Taher said, adding that he hopes police catch the thieves who are both still at large.
“I want the police to find them so the public can be safe and they don’t do this again,” he said. “I don’t want them moving around to other stores. The main thing is they get them off the streets.”
One suspect was last seen wearing a navy blue coat with an American flag patch on his shoulder, an orange knit cap and jeans.
The other suspect was wearing a dark colored hoodie, a baseball cap and a blue and white jacket.
Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci
