By Adam Harding -
NBC News
A New Jersey gas station attendant fended off an attempted armed robbery, video shows, using a rubber broom to repel the suspect during an attack that may be part of a crime wave targeting gas stations in This status.
The employee, Kuljit Singh, said a man asked him for a cigarette at the Broad Street gas station in Clifton and then pulled out a gun.
In surveillance video obtained exclusively by NBC News in New York, Singh can be seen grabbing a rubber broom as he tries to get away from the armed attacker.
The employee repeatedly threw the cleaning item at the man, striking him several times as he made his way into the gas station.
“[The man] pulled out the gun, so [Singh] ran and came in here, yelling my name,” gas station manager Patrick Doherty said.
“When I came out I saw the guy walking towards him with a gun, I saw the gun in his hand, so I backed away and called 911,” he added.
Singh was able to stop the suspect from opening the door, and even had the final say in the matter.
The video shows the suspect driving off in his car, but not before Singh used the rubber broom
to take a good swipe at the windshield
as he began to drive away empty-handed.
[“They were moments of terror”: witnesses of the armed assault on a channel in Ecuador narrate what they experienced]
“The man got back in his car, ready to drive away, and [Singh] held a rubber broom and hit the windshield... and broke it!” Doherty said.
Minutes earlier, a similar attack had occurred at a gas station in Hasbrouck Heights.
Surveillance video from that incident shows a black car pull into the Valero parking lot.
When the employee approaches, a man gets out and begins to attack him, while the worker tries to walk away from the place.
Moments later the attacker returns to his vehicle to leave.
Tahar Rahman was working at the time and indicated that the employee was pistol-whipped and robbed of cash, but was otherwise fine.
“When he saw the money, he tried to snatch it and grab it.
And she first hit him when she got out of the car.
My partner got scared and started running,” Rahman explained.
Paterson police are also investigating an armed robbery at a store by a suspect in a similar car, all of which occurred within a few hours of each other.
Surveillance video of the robbery at the scene
showed an armed man stealing hundreds of dollars from a cash register.
Witnesses said it matches the description of the other events, including the blue gloves.