DELI DUDE DUCKS DEATH
Bronx biz owner wrestles gun from thief
Mina Farag (right) had a gun pressed to his head by would-be robber Monday in his Bronx deli. But the newlywed wrestled the gun away from the unidentified punk (left), who fled and is still at large.
Mina Farag made sure the first gun ever shoved in his face wasn’t the last thing he ever saw.
The audacious deli owner wrestled the weapon away from the bandit during a wild 90-second brawl behind the counter in his Bronx bodega, cops said Tuesday.
The assailant, in a black hoodie and dark jeans, placed his weapon directly to the temple of Farag, 38, as the failed morning stickup turned into a two-man melee. A security camera captured Farag’s desperate fight for life against the armed robber, who eventually left without taking anything.
“He told me, ‘Your money or your life,’” the bespectacled Farag told the Daily News about his gutsy stand inside the Habibi Deli on E. 187th St. “I tried to calm him down. I tell him, ‘I’m going to give you money.’
“And then I saw where he started looking where the money is at. At this point, I felt like I can grab the gun from him.”
Farag, a co-owner of the business for the past few months, was more surprised than anyone by his spur-of- the-moment decision to go mano-a-mano with an armed criminal.
“If anybody has (asked) me, ‘What are you going to do if something like that (hap- pened)?’ — I’d tell them I would just give him the mon- ey,” Farag told the Daily News. “But the moment the guy was here, I was kind of like, ‘I would do anything to stop this guy.’”
Farag, a newlywed with a pregnant wife, said he was the only one of three workers at the Belmont bodega to fight back after the gunman ordered a bacon, egg and cheese sand- wich — and then charged at him behind the counter.
The Egyptian immigrant re- fused to surrender the cash even as the robber head- butted Farag and then repeat- edly punched him in the face.
As the pair battled, knock- ing over two boxes of Slim Jims, Farag managed to wres- tle the handgun away from his adversary. At one point, the vi- deo captures a customer walk- ing into the bodega with cash in hand, seeing the free-for-all only a few feet away and beat- ing a rapid exit to the street. He wasn’t the only nervous one; Farag said he was “definitely, definitely” afraid the robber would pull the trigger.
The combatants continued the struggle, with Farag re- counting how he wrapped both hands about the weapon and finally wrenched it free.
“I (felt) like I had to stop this guy,” Farag told The News. “In order to stop him, I need to take the gun from him … That was my target, to get the gun from him.”
The vanquished crook ran off empty-handed south on Hoffman St. and remained on the run, police said.
“I was trying to grab him, to not let him go,” said Farag. “But he just ran away. He was running away scared.”
Police ask anyone with in- formation to call Crime Stop- pers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Business partner Sam Ala- haddis, 26, said Farag holds a master’s degree in pharmacy but followed his dad into the deli business. He was impressed by Faraq’s composure in the life-or-death confrontation.
“You need a big, strong heart to handle a situation like that,” said Alahaddis. “You have to be really calm and be a strong person.”
According to Alahaddis, this was the first hold-up at the bodega since the business opened in 2001.
The hero clerk was treated and released at a local hospital for bruises and cuts to his face. Farag said he spared his wife the terrifying details of his Monday shift at the bodega — although she later found out, leaving her in tears.
“I told her it was a car accident,” he said. “I told her I had a car accident.”