{"id":184946,"date":"2026-04-03T22:52:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184946\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:52:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:52:34","slug":"queens-pizzeria-owner-saves-customers-from-man-armed-with-box-cutter-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184946\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens pizzeria owner saves customers from man armed with box cutter: \u2018Hero\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ELMHURST, Queens (PIX11) \u2014 A Queens pizzeria owner is being hailed as a hero after stopping a man armed with a box cutter from wreaking havoc during the dinner rush on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI had a couple of customers in the front. The older woman says to me, \u2018He has a knife.\u2019 He\u2019s like cursing us out, telling us give me food, give me this. I gave him a slice of pizza,\u201d Louie\u2019s Pizza owner, Louie Suljovic, told PIX11 News on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Discover more local reporting on our homepage;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Discover more local reporting on our homepage&quot;}\"> Discover more local reporting on our homepage <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But even after the kind gesture, the belligerent suspect left, but came back even more hostile, the owner said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police said Jose Guadfebles, 34, allegedly threatened a 41-year-old worker with a box cutter after storming into the popular Elmhurst eatery on Baxter Avenue at around 9:10 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Louie Suljovic, owner of Louie\u2019s Pizza in Queens, saved customers from a man armed with a box cutter on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Credit: PIX11 News)\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c6805f1327f89396a6fa4e0aaa6e913d.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Louie Suljovic, owner of Louie\u2019s Pizza in Queens, saved customers from a man armed with a box cutter on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Credit: PIX11 News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The owner sensed the 15 or so dining customers were in danger, so he sprang into\u00a0action and jumped on the man. The suspect then ran into the storefront glass door\u2013 shattering it \u2014 while the owner was trying to subdue him, according to police and Suljovic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cHe\u2019s a very good man. It\u2019s not the first time. He\u2019s a hero to the community. Put it like that,\u201d a frequent customer told PIX11 News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">NYPD officers arrived at the scene and arrested Guadfebles, a Queens resident, with criminal mischief and menacing, police said. His arraignment was pending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThey show a small business isn\u2019t just a storefront trying to make money,\u201d said Jonathan Forgash, co-founder and executive director of Queens Together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mira Wassef is an award-winning reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She joined the PIX11 News digital team in 2022. See more of her work <a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/author\/mira-wassef\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:here.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;here.&quot;}\" class=\"link \">here.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ELMHURST, Queens (PIX11) \u2014 A Queens pizzeria owner is being hailed as a hero after stopping a man&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[69063,55341,22987,74373,74371,74374,9,24,63,329,122,124,123,74372],"class_list":{"0":"post-184946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-box-cutter","9":"tag-customers","10":"tag-elmhurst","11":"tag-jose-guadfebles","12":"tag-louie-suljovic","13":"tag-louies-pizza","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-pix11","18":"tag-queens","19":"tag-queens-headlines","20":"tag-queens-news","21":"tag-wreaking-havoc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}