68-Year-Old Delaware Jewelry Store Owner Brutally Attacked By Armed Robber, CCTV Footage Goes Viral

The footage of a 68-year-old Korean American Delaware store owner being pistol-whipped and hit on the head with a hammer by a man, who posed as a customer, has gone viral.

The savage attack took place on Sept. 15 at the Solid Gold store located in downtown Wilmington.

The assailant, identified as 39-year-old Calvin Ushery, was taken into custody Thursday, the Washington Examiner reported.

Surveillance footage obtained by the New York Post showed the assailant, clad in all-black attire, including a mask, leaning over the display shelf pretending to show interest in the jewelry. However, things turn ugly all of a sudden as the robber starts assaulting the elderly store owner, grabbing him by the neck and putting a gun on his head.

The elderly man doesn't appear to resist. The assailant then keeps hitting him on the head with the hammer, to the point of knocking him to the ground.

As the victim lay unconscious on the ground behind the display shelf, the attacker jumps on the counter and stomps on the man's head.

The victim's son said the attack lasted 20 minutes, but the 36-second footage shared with the media speaks volumes about the extremity of the violence. His son, identified as Suh, shared an image of his father, whose name wasn't revealed.

In a description accompanying the image, Suh wrote his father was left "gravely injured" and critically ill in the ICU for four days after the incident.

"First he pistol-whipped him. Then he stomped his head when my father tried to get up," he wrote of his father's attacker in a GoFundMe page raised to collect funds for the victim's treatment. "Then finally beat him in the head 28 times with two of those blows thrown with a deadly hammer."

"He is relearning how to do the most basic things like walk, read and talk," Suh said, adding anyone else his father's age would have been killed.

Suh alleged the robber made off with jewelry worth $100,000. "I believe the hate/ anger filled in this person led to the many unnecessary blows to my dad's head," he said.

Ushery was charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, as well as first-degree robbery and criminal mischief, the police said. However, it wasn't clear if he was charged in connection to the attack.

After the pandemic, it has become commonplace for elderly people, especially those of Asian descent, to face brutal attacks in several places across the U.S. Amid the rise in the violence against elderly people, New York State Senator Andrew J. Lanza proposed legislation that classifies the crimes as Class D or Class E based on the extent of the violence and awards sentences correspondingly.

The assailant, identified as 39-year-old Calvin Ushery, was taken into custody, Washington Examiner reported. He was charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, as well as first-degree robbery and criminal mischief, the police said.