Manny Cohen 79 Brooklyn jeweler clinging to life after brutal beating by brazen thieves

 

An elderly Brooklyn jeweler was sent to the ICU after a pair of brazen thieves attacked him before robbing his store of six figures worth of merchandise — as his family on Wednesday decried criminals’ “golden ticket” to wreak havoc in New York City.

Manny Cohen, 79, was closing Roxy Jewelry Store on Flatbush Avenue around 5:30 p.m. Dec. 30 when two men forced their way inside and beat him within an inch of his life.

Speaking to The Post on Wednesday, Cohen’s son, Shawn, described the horror of finding out what had happened to his dad after he failed to return home for Friday night dinner.

“[My father] did not answer his phone calls, and that prompted me to check the cameras,” Shawn Cohen said. 

“Once I scrolled back on the camera, I saw that he was being robbed … I saw that they were beating my father to death.”

Surveillance footage showed the sick thieves attempting to hide his dad’s body under the subfloor — before spending over 20 minutes stuffing their pockets full of jewelry, Cohen said.

The pair made off with more than $100,000 in merchandise, according to the NYPD, which released an image of the still-at-large suspects on Sunday.

Several days later, the elderly shopkeeper remains in the ICU with a severe brain injury, his son said. His prognosis is still unclear.

“They did everything with the intention to kill a 79-year-old,” Cohen said of the thieves.

He also shared that his dad — who has run Roxy Jewelry for 25 years — had to get staples in his head last month when someone threw a rock at him while he was helping a customer. 

“From the description at the time, we believe it was the same people who did this second attack,” he said.

When asked if he was confident in law enforcement’s ability to apprehend the attackers, Cohen said be believed the perpetrators would be caught — but that he had “zero confidence” in the city’s ability to keep them off the streets.

“For anyone to do this, they have to feel confident enough and brave enough to make such an attack,” he told The Post.

“[Criminals] have a golden ticket [from the prosecutor’s office] to carry out these kind of attacks in New York City.”

Surveillance footage shows the thieves spent 20 minutes putting jewels in their pockets.