After being stabbed in his store, at left, victim Charlie Williams made his way to Golf Greens Fore U, at right.
A Shrewsbury Avenue merchant was pistol-whipped and stabbed by two hooded robbers this morning.
The victim, Charlie Williams, is said to be at a local hospital being treated for stab wounds to his arms. Joe Ali, who owns a neighboring business and assisted the victim, said Williams’ injuries are not life-threatening.
The assailants are said to be in custody, though we have no details from Red Bank police yet.
The duct tape that the victim was gagged with lies on the floor just inside Golf Greens Fore U. Blood is visible on the step outside.
According to Ali, who got the details from the victim, Williams was in his store, Ponceno Records, alone at about 10:30a when two hooded men entered, locked the door behind them and forced him into his office.
Williams was gagged with duct tape and beaten about the face with a gun, Ali said.
The robbers forced Williams to open his safe. According to Ali, after Williams had complied with that demand, “then they started trying to stab him in the face. He was blocking the knife with his arms.”
The attackers fled through a rear entrance. We hear from another witness that they were caught and arrested on Bridge Avenue.
Bleeding and bound, Williams made his way next door to Ali’s shop, Golf Greens Fore U.
“He came running in here,” Ali said. “Blood was everywhere.”
Police and an ambulance were summoned and arrived within five minutes, Ali said.
He said Williams was coherent and able to give a description of his attackers to police.
Before emergency personnel arrived, Ali took off his undershirt an used it as a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding from one of Williams’ arms, he said.
When redbankgreen arrived about 90 minutes later, a trail of blood was still visible on the sidewalk from one store to the next.
“I feel like jello right now,” Ali said, one sleeve of his shirt spotted with blood. “I’m numb. You think, ‘will I be next?'”
The putting green store was in the news locally last year when a deer crashed through its front door.
