Manhattan

Two vicious thieves were busted on the Lower East Side after slamming a stranger’s head into the pavement and swiping his cellphone, authorities said yesterday.

Mark Cruz, 21, and Henry Nieves, 18, accosted their victim at Columbia and Broome streets at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.

Cruz put him in a chokehold, threw him to the ground and repeatedly banged his head on the asphalt, while Nieves rifled his pockets and grabbed his phone, police said.

Cop soon caught up with Cruz and Nieves, who, had tried to rob another man just minutes earlier, officers said.

Two 16-year-olds were arrested after snatching a duffel bag from a Lower East Side restaurant, authorities said yesterday.

Unique Chavis and Jarel Ward entered the eatery on Elizabeth Street near Houston Street at 12:40 a.m. on the Fourth of July and asked to use the bathroom, cops said.

After a manager gave them permission, Ward went in as Chavis waited outside, cops said.

Minutes later, the manager noticed that Chavis was no longer there and then saw Ward leave the bathroom and look around nervously before fleeing, sources said.

The manager called 911, and police determined that a worker’s duffel bag, containing his passport and cellphone, was missing.

Cops scoured the neighborhood and soon busted Chavis and Ward.

Brooklyn

A thug was charged with murder for killing one man and wounding another with an assault rifle in Bedford-Stuyvesant, police sources said.

Paul Harris, 20, surrendered Wednesday night in connection with the Monday-evening slaying of Rasheed Craig, 20, in the Risley Dent Towers on Fulton Street.

A 19-year-old man and a third victim were also wounded in the fusillade.

A man was arrested after taking a knapsack from a beachgoer in Coney Island and refusing to return it, police said yesterday.

John Green, 48, allegedly rifled through the bag on Riegelmann Boardwalk near West 16th Street at 1:40 p.m. Thursday.

He had already taken out a wallet and stuffed it in his pocket when the knapsack’s owner confronted him and demanded it back, sources said.

Green allegedly swung a lunch pail at the man and fled.

The victim’s girlfriend alerted a cop, who grabbed Green nearby and recovered the wallet, said a spokesman for DA Charles Hynes.

An elderly man was busted for bashing a Brighton Beach supermarket worker, police said yesterday.

Doros Aristakestyan, 73, got into an argument with the employee at the Brighton Bazaar, on Brighton Beach Avenue near Coney Island Avenue, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, cops said.

Aristakestyan grabbed the table and smashed the worker in the face, then followed the injured man outside and threatened him with a boxcutter, sources said.

A sticky-fingered thief was busted after trying to make off with $45 worth of gum from a Bedford-Stuyvesant supermarket, authorities said yesterday.

Michael Martin, 27, was stuffing the gum into his pockets at the Food Bazaar Market, on Wyckoff Avenue near Myrtle Avenue, at 2 p.m. Thursday when a witness tipped off a security guard, sources said.

A guard grabbed Martin and recovered the gum from inside his jacket, sources said.

A man in his 20s, shot in the back on a street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was in serious condition last night at Kings County Hospital, police said yesterday.

The man was wounded at Malcolm X Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, police said.

The shooter was still at large last night.

Five members of the Bloods gang ended an argument over a girl by beating a 17-year-old boy at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, authorities said yesterday.

Jonathan Reeves, 18, and four accomplices allegedly set upon the victim in the terminal on Bay Street in St. George at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Sources said the victim had once dated Reeves’ girlfriend.

The gang kicked and punched the boy and fled, but cops quickly caught Reeves, Quayshaun Parker, 17 Jaquon Hazel, 18, and two other juveniles, said a spokesman for DA Daniel Donovan.

A woman impersonated her former lover to scam prescription drugs from a Dongan Hills pharmacy, authorities said yesterday.

Pracilla Dawson, 27, was caught on video picking up Xanax, Zolepadam and Ambien from the Hylan Boulevard Duane Reade near Midland Avenue at 3:30 p.m. on March 14, cops said.

Later, when her ex went to the store and learned that her pills had already been picked up, she called police.

Investigators reviewed surveillance video and identified Dawson, who was arrested Thursday.