BY MARY REINHOLZ | A 20-year-old male employee at the International House of Pancakes at 235 E. 14th St. suffered a deep wound after he was stabbed in the back of his shoulder by a customer during an altercation around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, Sept. 16 , police said.
E.M.S. transported the victim to Bellevue Hospital where he was said to be in stable condition. Another customer who tried to break up the fight was also cut in the hand, but refused medical attention.
The alleged perpetrator, described as a 34-year-old male about 6 feet tall, fled the scene in a gray SUV and remains the subject of an ongoing investigation by the 13th Precinct into the felony assault. Police said the suspect was a patron at the 24-hour pancake franchise, located between Second and Third avenues, but provided no further details.
A shift manager at the IHOP said, “I’m not at liberty to discuss this.”
The pancake house had another more horrific incident befall its staff a year ago. Imani Armstrong, 25, an exotic dancer and part-time IHOP employee at the same location, was stalked and shot in the head execution style by a black-clad masked gunman on Sept. 1, 2022, on E. 14th Street at Irving Place, after leaving her shift around 5 a.m. and heading for the subway at Union Square.
Clarkson Wilson, now 45, the father of at least one of Armstrong’s children, was arrested and indicted in her killing, which Manhattan District Attorney Alan Bragg characterized as a “cold-blooded murder.” Prosecutors attributed the killing to a domestic dispute.
Horrible.
And outrageous that corporate IHOP place is open 24 hours which clearly endangers employees.