Hero butcher stops thief from beating autistic employee in NYC: NYPD

He took care of the beef!

A hero supermarket butcher would not put up with a brazen bandit who tried to plunder his Queens store and then pummeled his special needs co-worker.

Ray Wilkins, 49, fended off the creep and flagged down two NYPD transit cops who slapped cuffs on the heartless brute.

Wilkins had just clocked out of work and was warming up his moped when he saw some guy “running through the parking lot” at his autistic co-worker.

“I thought maybe he knew him and he was going to run up and give him at hug…until I saw he threw the first punch and hit him,” Wilkins told the Post on Saturday. “He hit him in the face repeatedly probably six, seven times before I was able to get from my moped over there. He didn’t say nothing, he just ran right up and started punching him. I was able to get over there and grab this guy and threw him off of him.”

Wilkins thwarted Jack Crumbley, 23, a violent career criminal, who allegedly pocketed ice cream, chips and beauty care products from the Stop & Shop on Beach Channel Drive in the Rockaways around 8 p.m. Friday – then set his sights on the unsuspecting 19-year-old autistic victim, who works as a helper at the grocery store, according to sources.

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Wilkins said he was trying to get on his phone to call 911 and the “guy turns around and swung at me again so, again, I had to back up and defend myself.”

“The guy swung at me, hit me in the face twice, and I did what I had to do to defend myself,” Wilkins said. “He threatened me a few times. He said, ‘Do you want this smoke?’ and reaching into his pants like he had a weapon, hoping that I would back away,” the butcher said.

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After trading roundhouse punches that didn’t connect, the unhinged attacker walked away, but Wilkins kept following him — and finally got 911 on the phone.

“I was not going to let him get away with assaulting me and my coworker. There’s no way I was going to let that happen,” he said.

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The suspect started running and jumped over a fence and Wilkins did the same.  

“I hopped over the fence and I stumbled and hurt my back,” he noted.

The suspect walked towards the NYPD’s 100 precinct station house while Wilkins was still on with 911. He saw a white shirt and another cop getting into a patrol car and called out to them. “I was screaming. ‘Hey stop that guy. He just assaulted someone at my workplace and he assaulted me.”

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Crumbley was arrested for allegedly robbing the Queens supermarket and beating the special needs employee in an unprovoked attack, police and sources said.

Crumbly, who sources say has over 20 prior arrests, was wanted on an open bench warrant for another unprovoked attack last year.

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In that incident, Crumbley allegedly punched a Queens bus driver on Sept. 15, 2022, and shouted: “Why are you driving so recklessly,” according to sources.

Crumbley was busted a month later, but released.

Last month, a Queens judge issued a warrant for Crumbley’s arrest in the bus driver assault case.

Crumbley, who sources say lives at a homeless shelter in Kew Gardens, was charged with robbery, assault and harassment.

Additional reporting by Katherine Donlevy