Shopkeeper Aiding Policeman Stabbed in Bronx

May 22, 1965 - Enrique Negron, a 56-year-old Puerto Rican shopkeeper, was stabbed last night as he went to the aid of a white patrolman being menaced by an angry crowd of 200 Negroes on a Bronx street, the police said.

The patrolman, 43-year-old Philip Siegel, who was on extra duty as part of the drive against subway crime, was attempting to arrest a Negro youth as a suspect in a store break-in when the crowd gathered.

The patrolman was punched and knocked to the pavement before help arrived. The youth he was trying to arrest escaped in the melee.

The patrolman said he was on duty at the 174th St. station of the Third Ave. elevated line when, shortly after 9 p.m., he saw from the southbound elevated station that two boys were breaking into the Ross Furniture and Gift Shop at 4023 Third Ave.

As he raced down the steps to the street, the youths split up. He chased one boy west on 174th St., seizing him at Bathgate Ave.

As he marched the boy under the elevated line to the store, he was met by a group of 50 or 60 Negroes, chanting: “Let him go! Let him go!”

As Siegel tried to get his handcuffs on the prisoner, one man dropped to the ground in front of him, and a second gave the cop a shove from behind. The officer fell sprawling, and the prisoner raced away.

“I ran after him on Third to 174th St.,” Siegel said. “I fired a warning shot into the air, and he stopped.”

Again, Siegel headed back to the furniture store holding the prisoner. By this time, the crowd at the store had swelled to 200, and someone shouted, “Why did you have to shoot?” The crowd began to pick the line up in a chant.

Siegel said five or six men then rushed him and began punching and kicking him.

“I let go of my prisoner with my right hand and told him not to move,” Siegel recalled. “Then I pulled out my gun. They backed off some, but not far. A guy who had grabbed my nightstick out of my hand kept shouting, ‘Come on, shoot me,’ and the crowd yelled, ‘Yeah, shoot, shoot!’”

Did Siegel think of shooting at that point?

“I could have shot him, but I couldn’t either. I figured I might hit one of the kids or somebody else. You know, it’s not the easiest thing — to pull the trigger of a gun and know you’re going to kill somebody.”

Siegel said he then heard a voice behind him say, “That’s all right, officer. I’m with you, officer.” The voice belonged to Negron, who had run out of his grocery with a half-dozen friends.

Said Siegel: “When I heard those words, I felt so warm, so wonderful inside, and it was like I had new energy. I don’t know whether I was praying or not. But the crowd started to back down.

“Then there were sirens and radio cars zooming up, and the mob took off — but I heard a grunting behind me.”Someone had shoved a knife into Negron’s back. Today, he is in fair condition at Fordham Hospital.

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