Two men were stabbed Tuesday morning while trying to fend off a moped thief at a Brooklyn gas station, police said.
A 25-year-old delivery driver was fueling up his black Flywing moped at a Shell station near the corner of 36th St. and Fifth Ave. about 9:30 a.m. in Sunset Park near Green-Wood Cemetery when the suspect came up and the victim’s wheels.
The moped owner refused and started a fight with the thief, who then pulled a knife.
“The [thief] had a mask on and he was on a motorcycle with another man,” witness Peedro Saabedra told the Daily News. “He said, ‘Give me the keys!’ But the owner of the motorcycle said, ‘No! No!'”
A 34-year-old man who was standing near a red motorcycle with a for-sale sign on it jumped in to defend the moped owner, police said.
“There was another man who tried to help and he got hurt,” Saabedra, 56, remembers.
During the struggle, the younger man was stabbed in the left arm. The elderly Good Samaritan was stabbed in the back and the back of his left thigh.
The potential moped thief took off on foot after his partner sped off.
“This happened pretty quickly,” the witness said, noting, “The striker took off toward 36th St.”
No arrests have been made.
Saabedra immediately rushed over to help the two dismembered victims when an ambulance was called.
“I didn’t want them to bleed. I gave them something to wrap around their wounds,” he said. “One of them said his body was cold. There was a lot of blood on the floor.”
Both were taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn to be treated for minor injuries.
A Shell station employee did not witness the attack but was shocked by the bloodshed.
“It’s very bad,” said the employee, who did not want to be named. “It scares me when I see this. I work here, I don’t want to see any problems.”
