Ray Alvarez, Ray’s Candy Store Owner
Another day in New York, another violent crime against an innocent.
On Tuesday, Ray Alvarez, the 90-year-old owner of Ray’s Candy Store in the East Village, was brutally beaten by thugs leaving him with a black and swollen eye and a cut on his face. Despite the attack, Alvarez was back at work the next morning.
Born in Iran, Alvarez come to the US in 1964 to pursue the American Dream, opening Ray’s in 1974. The store is so well known, it has its own Wikipedia page.
But Ray Alvarez — who was left with a black eye and a nasty cut on his face from the cowardly assault on Tuesday –said it never would’ve happened if there were more cops patrolling the neighborhood, which other locals agreed has become increasingly unsafe.
“There is a lot of crime because there is not enough police,” Alvarez told The Post Thursday. “We used to have police on foot patrol, walking up and down. No more.”
The East Village stalwart was randomly attacked around 3 a.m. Tuesday by a stranger who asked him if he wanted to buy a package he was carrying, cops said.
Fellow business owners in the area worry about the skyrocketing crime in the city.
Neighborhood residents and merchants said its a symptom of the downfall of quality of life in the neighborhood in recent years.
“No safety,” said Joe Ali, who owns the nearby East Village New Deli. “It is not good. Defunding the police and all this kind of s–t leads to this. It’s ridiculous.”
Ali added that the situation is “getting worse and worse.”
“I expected from the administration to do a better job, but they’re not doing it,” he told The Post. “You can steal, you can stab, you can do anything, and the following day, you’re going to come out.”
Longtime local Lori Solomon called the attack on Alvarez “absolutely horrifying.”
“I don’t even know what to say. I don’t know where this person’s humanity is,” she said. “There is no justification to do this to anybody, but a 90-year-old man?”
Police captured images of the attackers on video and announced Saturday that two suspects have been arrested. According to the Post,”Luis Peroza, 39, and Gerald Barth, 55, were arrested in the sadistic smackdown of the unsuspecting Ray Alvarez, 90, whose injuries were so severe he now has to eat through a straw, he told The Post. Authorities believe Barth and Peroza, also of the East Village, ran amok in the neighborhood and their spree included Alvarez’ Avenue A shop, the sources said.”
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