NYC Candy Legend, 90, the brutal front-door store he’s run for half a century

Someone attacked the 90-year-old Manhattan candy store legend earlier this week after harassing him on the street, threatening to kill him and beating him bloody outside the East Village store he has run for the past 50 years, police say.

The NYPD confirmed on Thursday that Ray Alvarez was the victim of a 3 a.m. attack last Tuesday near his Avenue A candy store. According to police, a stranger with a package approached Alvarez outside his store and asked if he wanted to buy content. . Alvarez asked what was inside the package, police said, after which the stranger told another man to hold the package and threatened to kill the 90-year-old candy store owner.

The assailant then hit Alvarez on the left side of his head and face with an object described as a belt with a heavy stone at the end. A 90-year-old man was bleeding to death as the suspect fled down Avenue A.

Alvarez, who opened his shop in 1974, was not immediately hospitalized due to the attack, but suffered a black eye and a black eye. Local blog EV Grieve shared photos of the owner after the incident. E. V. Grieve says that Alvarez went outside for some air with another employee and noticed two men known to be selling seltzer in the area.

According to a story he told on the blog, Alvarez turned down the request and both men left, then one returned to beat him. The employee was hit in the chest, but he expected everything to be fine.

Police released a security camera image of the suspect taken in the area at the time of the attack (top left inset). Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

The investigation is ongoing.