A 36-year-old woman who tried to break up an argument near a pool table inside a South Richmond Hill sports bar wound up getting struck in the back with a pool cue, according to police, who are now offering a cash reward for help finding the man responsible. The attack happened late on Friday, September 25, inside The Ranch Sports Bar and Grill at 134-01 Liberty Avenue, leaving the woman with pain and swelling before EMS treated her at the scene.
Police say the man was inside the bar just before 10:30 p.m. when he got into a verbal dispute with a female employee near the pool table, as reported by QNS. When the 36-year-old woman stepped in to try to calm things down, the man allegedly grabbed a pool cue and struck her in the back before fleeing onto Liberty Avenue in an unknown direction. The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect on Thursday, describing him as having a dark complexion, a thin build, black braided hair, and a mustache, last seen wearing a tan jacket over a dark-colored sweater and black pants.
Reward Offered, Tip Lines Open
The NYPD is offering a reward of up to $3,500 for information leading to the suspect's arrest and indictment. Tipsters can call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), submit Spanish-language tips to 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), or reach out through the Crime Stoppers website or the @NYPDTips account on X — all calls and messages are kept strictly confidential, per the same report. Rewards of this kind are funded not through the police department's municipal budget but by the non-profit New York City Police Foundation through private donations, as Hoodline has previously reported.
Using a pool cue as a weapon carries real legal weight under New York law. Intentionally causing physical injury with a “dangerous instrument” — defined under state law as any object readily capable of causing serious physical injury given how it is used, which can include a pool cue — constitutes Assault in the Second Degree. That charge is a Class D violent felony carrying a potential sentence of up to seven years in state prison.
A Bar With a Disciplinary History
The Ranch, known for its West Indian dishes, sits along a stretch of Liberty Avenue that forms the commercial heart of South Richmond Hill's Little Guyana and Little Punjab corridor, a Queens Community District 9 strip dense with West Indian and South Asian small businesses, roti shops, and nightlife spots, according to the NYC Department of Small Business Services Avenue NYC report. The venue is not new to scrutiny: New York State Liquor Authority disciplinary records show that The Ranch Rest & Bar of Guyana Inc. faced multiple SLA disciplinary charges in 2018 and 2019 for disorderly premises following fights and assaults on site, proceedings that resulted in state civil penalties totaling $11,000.
The bar sits near the intersection of 134th Street and Liberty Avenue, within a mile of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, the primary Level 1 trauma center serving central and southern Queens. The case is being investigated by the NYPD's 102nd Precinct, which operates out of its station house at 87-34 118th Street in Richmond Hill and covers South Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens, Woodhaven, and northern Ozone Park.
Part of a Rising Felony Assault Count
This incident lands amid a documented rise in violence across the precinct. Through September 27, the 102nd Precinct had reported 247 felony assaults for the year, nine more than at the same point in 2025 — a 3.8% year-over-year increase, according to CompStat figures cited by QNS. That builds on an even steeper mid-year trend: by late June, CompStat data had shown 161 felony assaults year-to-date, a 15% surge over the 140 recorded during the same span in 2025; Hoodline's report on an armed home invasion nearby says that trend was detailed in earlier coverage of a dead-end shooting. Robberies have also climbed, with 105 logged through early September versus 93 during the same period in 2025, a 12.9% increase, per amNewYork.
The pool cue assault follows a string of other violent incidents reported in the precinct this fall. On September 2, a 67-year-old employee was punched twice in the face after a verbal argument escalated outside a location on 101st Avenue in South Richmond Hill, and a week later, on September 9, three armed intruders invaded a Richmond Hill residence near 101st Street, striking a man, firing a gunshot, and assaulting two women before stealing collectible cards. Both cases remain part of the broader public safety picture along the corridor as investigators continue searching for the man accused of striking the woman at The Ranch.
