Heroic pizzeria owner Louie Suljovic<\/a> saved the day twice last week \u2014 first against a box cutter-wielding goon looking for a slice, then by stopping a reckless driver from speeding away after a crash outside his Queens shop.<\/p>\nThe back-to-back serving of street justice began late April 1 \u2014 nearly four years to the day after Suljovic and his dad were viciously stabbed several times while trying to thwart a robbery.<\/p>\n
Pizzeria owner Louie Suljovic fought a goon with a box cutter last week. Johnathan Forgash<\/p>\n
Despite Suljovic\u2019s past run-in at the wrong end of a hooligan\u2019s knife, he unhesitatingly burst into action when an unhinged 34-year-old man burst into Louie\u2019s Pizzeria in Elmhurst brandishing a blade, police said<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to deescalate the situation,\u201d Suljovic told The Post. \u201cHe got very nasty, told us to give him an \u2018F-ing slice,\u2019 and was very aggressive toward my customers \u2014 so I gave him a slice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suljovic\u2019s quick thinking eased the situation and sent the alleged maniac, Jose Guadfebles, on his way \u2014 at least for a short while.<\/p>\n
The maniac soon returned looking for trouble, but Suljovic didn\u2019t give him any chance to start cutting.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I saw him reaching for the knife, I grabbed him,\u201d said Suljovic, a military vet who has run the Baxter Avenue shop with his 73-year-old father, Cazim, since 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a full house, and I wanted to protect the people here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerned for his customers\u2019 safety, Suljovic and his employees cornered and fought Guadfebles until officers from the NYPD\u2019s 110th Precinct arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got into a scuffle, I ripped the knife out of his jacket and got it out of the way,\u201d Suljovic said. \u201cWe were tussling, holding him down, and the glass door cracked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cops confiscated the box cutter and booked Guadfebles on charges of criminal mischief and menacing, officials said.<\/p>\n
Just three days after thwarting off the knife attack, Suljovic stopped an alleged drunken driver from fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run crash right outside his shop.<\/p>\n
While the driver was halted at a stoplight Saturday night, Suljovic opened the driver\u2019s door, removed the keys and held the individual until police arrived, video shows.<\/p>\n
The scuffle left the pizzeria\u2019s door smashed. Ben Tifa<\/p>\n
Jose Guadfebles, 34, allegedly brandished a blade at the Queens pizzeria. Courtesy of Louie’s Pizza<\/p>\n
\u201cI love my neighborhood,\u201d Suljovic told The Post shortly after. \u201cI\u2019m here to protect my customers and my people in my neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suljovic\u2019s bravery quickly drew kudos in a video posted the next morning by John Forgash, founder and executive director of Queens Together, a nonprofit supporting the borough\u2019s restaurant community.<\/p>\n
The video recounting the tense run-in with the knife-wielding creep, and encouraging locals to visit the pizzeria, racked up more than 20,000 views.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn alert should go out through the police or another network to business owners, warning them to be vigilant, letting them know about recent crimes against businesses in the area,\u201d Forgash said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be too difficult to have something similar to an Amber Alert system to help business owners be aware of what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an ironic twist, Suljovic was being interviewed by a television crew when Guadfebles, a Queens resident, returned to the pizzeria.<\/p>\n
Suljovic chased him away, and Guadfebles was arrested again Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Wait a second, that\u2019s him, he\u2019s back,\u2019\u201d Suljovic said. \u201cYou can\u2019t make this stuff up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guadfebles has since been released from jail without bail after he pleaded not guilty to charges, court records how.<\/p>\n
The recent incident was eerily similar to the March 26, 2022, episode in which Suljovic and his father suffered multiple stab wounds as they came to the aid of an elderly woman who was robbed, stabbed and thrown to the ground outside their shop.<\/p>\n
The stabbing left the father and son each with a collapsed lung, but they recovered and quickly returned to slinging pizzas.<\/p>\n
Suljovic said things aren\u2019t improving in the area around Elmhurst\u2019s Dunningham Triangle, where Louie\u2019s is well known for its grandma and chicken and tomato slices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings have gotten worse,\u201d Suljovic told The Post.<\/p>\n
Louie and Cazim Suljovic receive the Queens Together Community Leadership Award in 2025. Johnathan Forgash<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not good when people are arrested and immediately released. The punk (who stabbed us) was arrested a week prior. If he was in jail, none of that would have happened. How many other incidents wouldn\u2019t have happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
James McMenamin, the vice president of the Newtown Civic Association, the Elmhurst History and Cemeteries Preservation Society, and the Elmhurst Memorial League, said the neighborhood has seen a decline in safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality of life in the vicinity has gotten progressively worse. Transients linger daily, drinking and urinating. Beggars enter businesses. Emotionally disturbed people roaming about are the norm,\u201d said McMenamin, 58, a lifelong Elmhurst resident.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone with eyes can witness constant petty theft, all while local elected officials peddle their pro-crime policies, fixate on open streets, bike lanes, and the rights of the so-called oppressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Suljovic told The Post \u201cnobody feels safe\u201d in the neighborhood, he won\u2019t give up on New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a part of my community, what am I going to do? Leave everybody behind?\u201d Suljovic said. \u201cI didn\u2019t run in 2022, and I\u2019m not running now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Additional reporting by Matt Troutman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s taking a slice out of crime. Heroic pizzeria owner Louie Suljovic saved the day twice last week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[303,22987,68,55007,57,9,56,63,65,64,343,122,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-187451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-elmhurst","10":"tag-exclusive","11":"tag-good-samaritan","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-pizza","19":"tag-queens","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187451","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=187451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}