NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Police arrested a man on Wednesday who allegedly beat a Queens pawn shop owner so brutally that officials initially thought he had been shot before he died weeks later.
Rondolfo Lopez-Portillo, 48, faces murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon charges after he allegedly attacked 60-year-old Arasab Shoughi at Global Pawn Shop on Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica on March 28.
The victim was beaten repeatedly in the head and suffered severe trauma, according to police.
Lopez-Portillo showed up to the pawn shop with some watches he wanted to sell before he forced his way to the back of the store and knocked Shoughi to the ground and struck him with a metal rod as Shoughi attempted to shield his hands, The New York Daily News reports.
The outlet reports Lopez-Portillo then stole jewelry and fled the scene.
A fellow business owner who did not want to be identified told NBC New York that he was the one to find Shoughi in a pool of blood.
"[I] rushed there, saw him there and then tried to get something to stop the bleeding," the owner said at the time.
Shoughi was initially hospitalized in critical condition at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center but succumbed to his injuries on April 17.
The Daily News reports Lopez-Portillo is currently awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court.
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