A 33-year-old man was punched and kicked by two unidentified attackers at the southeast corner of Woodhaven Boulevard and 89th Avenue on Saturday evening, September 26, before the pair forcibly took his wallet and cellphone and sped off in a black van, according to police. The victim suffered minor injuries and refused medical treatment at the scene.
The attack happened at approximately 6:00 PM within the confines of the 102nd Precinct, according to a bulletin from NYPD Crime Stoppers
. The two individuals approached the victim, assaulted him throughout the body, and then fled after grabbing his belongings by force, per the same bulletin. A real-time 911 report logged on the safety alert platform Citizen at 6:11 PM that evening described an assault and cellphone theft by a group of men at the same location, according to
Citizen
.
NYPD Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $3,500 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the case. Anyone with information is asked to submit tips by phone at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or by direct message to @NYPDTips. Those reward payouts are administered and funded by the non-profit New York City Police Foundation through private donations rather than municipal police budgets, according to the New York City Police Foundation.
A Precinct Already Under Strain
The robbery adds to a troubling pattern in the 102nd Precinct, which covers Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, and northern Ozone Park from its station house at 87-34 118th Street in Richmond Hill, according to NYC.gov. Data reported by Bushwick Daily in July showed that through late June, the precinct had recorded 166 felony assaults, a 14.5 percent increase from the 145 logged during the same period in 2025.
Under New York Penal Law § 160.10, a forcible theft carried out with the aid of another person present, or one that causes physical injury, constitutes Robbery in the Second Degree — a Class C violent felony punishable by 3.5 to 15 years in state prison, according to the New York State Senate. Because two attackers acted together to forcibly take the victim's wallet and phone, any eventual prosecution in this case would fall under that same statute.
Corridor Has Seen Repeated Safety Concerns
Woodhaven Boulevard is a major north-south commercial and transit corridor, carrying MTA Select Bus Service lines Q52 and Q53 and intersecting with the elevated J/Z subway line at Jamaica Avenue just blocks from where the robbery occurred, per the Woodhaven Business Improvement District. The MTA completed a major accessibility and infrastructure upgrade at the nearby Woodhaven Blvd J/Z station in January 2025, adding new staircases and sidewalk entrances to improve street access along the boulevard.
This is not the first time this year that Woodhaven's commercial strip has drawn safety concerns. Merchants along the corridor held a community safety summit in March after an attempted break-in at historic Neir's Tavern, with shopkeepers reporting that as many as 15 local storefronts had been targeted in recent weeks — a wave of unease Hoodline covered in its March report. Hoodline has also reported on other unsolved violent incidents in the 102nd Precinct this month, including an assault that left a 67-year-old Richmond Hill man injured and an armed home invasion in the same neighborhood.
The 102nd Precinct's Detective Squad has handled major felony cases across central Queens throughout the year, including joint investigative work with federal task forces and the Queens District Attorney on a fatal Queens intersection shooting indicted in February, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York. Whether investigators have identified the black van's license plate or any surveillance footage from nearby businesses or transit infrastructure remains unclear.
Woodhaven itself is bordered to the north by the more than 500-acre Forest Park and is known for its intact late-19th and early-20th-century Victorian frame homes and prewar apartment buildings, according to CityNeighborhoods.NYC. For now, police are asking anyone with information about the two men or the black van to come forward as the investigation continues.
