NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A gunman dragged a man down a sidewalk, beating him with a pistol, after fighting over a black bag in front of a Starbucks cafe blocks from Central Park on Friday, police and witnesses said.
The victim, 50-year-old Seton Ijams, was hospitalized in stable condition after the attack, which happened just after 2 p.m. three blocks south of the park. Police said he may have been grazed by a bullet or pistol-whipped in the head; some witnesses said a gunman shot him in the street before fleeing.
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Police believe Ijams, a talent manager at Columbia Artist Management, had just withdrawn a "significant" amount of money from a bank and was carrying it in a briefcase. Police say the case was stolen. Some reports put the figure at around $100,000.
Witnesses said they saw the two men fighting over a black duffel bag in front of the cafe at 56th Street and Sixth Avenue. The younger man then dragged the victim -- who was clinging to the bag -- down the street, beating him in the head with the gun, witnesses said.
Zafer Incekara, a limousine driver from Lyndhurst, N.J., said the gunman fired a shot at the man before he fled.
"I saw the guy running out to Sixth Avenue'' with the black bag after leaving the man in the street, said witness Amado Delacruz, 34, of Bayonne, N.J.
"You don't expect this. Not on 56th Street. Especially in front of Starbucks,'' Delacruz said.
A woman who answered the telephone at the Starbucks hung up on a reporter's call Friday.
Photo by 1010 WINS Web Producer Marta Zielinska
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