Stabbing Victims In Astoria Say Attackers Wanted Cash: Report

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The promise of cash motivated a scooter-riding duo to knife two men through the windows of a car, according to the victims.

Steven Cortez, 20, and his nephew, George Cortez, 18, told the New York Daily News that they were driving home from their family bodega in Ditmars Steinway when the two suspects stabbed them through the open car windows, Steven Cortez told the news outlet.

“They saw me counting money when I was getting off of work at my family’s bodega,” he told the Daily News of the assailants. “They followed us all the way from Steinway.”

Around 8:30 p.m. last Wednesday, the uncle and nephew were driving near 23 Street and 30 Road when the pair on the scooter attacked them through the open front and passenger side windows, police said. A 19-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy were also in the car, the Daily News reported.

“They didn’t say anything. They just started stabbing us. We were like, ‘Stop! Stop!’ But they kept going. They stabbed my nephew in the chest and under his ribs. He’s still recovering,” Steven Cortez told the news outlet.

After the attack, police said that the duo on the scooter fled down 23 Street, while the men in the car tried to escape the area. They drove down 30 Road and onto the sidewalk before crashing into the side of a nearby building, according to the NYPD.

“I just tried to get away,” George Cortez, who was driving the car, explained to the Daily News, “and boom, I hit the wall.”

Photos obtained by the Daily News show the car's passenger-side exterior totally crumpled. Inside, the car's airbags are soaked with blood.

Police said that one man — likely George Cortez — was stabbed in the left arm and torso, and taken to Cornell Hospital in serious but stable condition. Steven Cortez told the Daily News that his nephew was stabbed “under his ribs” and is “still recovering as of last week.

Steven Cortez, on his part, was stabbed under the eye, requiring stitches for the 3-inch gash on his face, the Daily News reported.

Witnesses told the Daily News that the car bumped into the scooter before the incident. "The car hit one of the guys on the bikes just a little," a 22-year-old witness who lives on the block told the news site the day of the incident.

But Steven Cortez said that the scooter-riding duo followed the family members in order to rob them. If the car hit the scooter it happened while he and his nephew were trying to drive away from the attackers, he told the Daily News.

“It’s messed up. I can’t talk about it. My mind is still going through it,” he told the news site. “I just want people to know the truth.”

As of Monday, Aug. 9 no arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing.