Thakur Persaud, a 50-year-old man of Indian origin, was shot at outside his home in Queens, New York, when he tried to save his 12-year-old son from two men who attempted a robbery on Nov. 19. The incident by captured in a CCTV footage that was released by the New York Police Department.
Of the three men who attempted the robbery, two are visible in the footage. The men approached the house in the Hollis area on 197th Street in Queens around 2.40 pm. One of them pretended that he was there to deliver a package while the others hid behind a fence.
“This is a Sunday,” Persaud said, Pix11.com reported. “Everyone in my family was home.” He was shot in the thigh with what the police believe was an air gun.
His son, 12, went to open the door and the man in a black hood tried to barge inside. Persaud tried to push the man outside.
“The guy tried to push me in the house I tried to push him out, behind him another guy was coming and he had something in his hand,” Persaud said. He managed to push the would-be robber to the street but got shot outside the house.
He was taken to the Jamaica Hospital in a stable condition, and was released soon. The type of weapon was unclear. The police earlier thought it was a BB gun or air gun but said later that it could be a smaller caliber gun.
“I have a real bullet in my leg and I have the X-ray to prove,” Persaud said. “I don’t know how it would have ended if anyone touched my kid.”
The police described the men as follows:
A man in his early 20s, last seen wearing a black jacket with a hood, black sweatpants, and white sneakers with stripes.
A man last seen wearing a dark gray hoodie and light gray pants.
A man last seen wearing a red and black hoodie with the word “NIKE” across the front, and light gray sweatpants.
The crime rate in Queens is 15.89 per thousand, according to Neighborhoodscout. The chances of becoming a victim to violent crime in the area is 1 in 264. The rate of robbery is 1.18 per thousand in the region.
