Three bandits brandishing two guns and a stun gun cane brazenly robbed the trendy Fairway supermarket on the Upper East Side while savagely attacking five employees, The Post has learned.
Daniel Nieves, 25, and two male accomplices barged inside the upscale grocery store on East 86th Street near Lexington Avenue around 3:40 a.m. Monday – when it was closed — and demanded that the workers open a safe, law enforcement sources said.
When the employees refused, one of the gunmen pistol-whipped two of the workers, causing severe cuts and gashes to their heads, sources said.
Nieves, brandishing the stun gun cane, then rifled the pockets of two other workers and removed their cell phone while the victims were lying down on the floor, the sources said.
Two of the thieves then approached a fifth worker and one stunned him, knocking him to the ground with a shooting pain in his side, sources said.
One of the injured Fairway employees, Ruperto Sanchez, brushed off the attack, telling The Post, “I’m fine, my coworkers are fine.”
After the bandits fled with only the cell phones, someone quickly called 911, sources said.
During a police sweep of the area, Nieves was captured and slapped with several felonies for robbery and burglary.
His cohorts were still being sought last night.
Under questioning, Nieves told cops that he and his accomplices went to Fairway with the purpose of robbing the safe, according to a Manhattan criminal court complaint.
He admitted that he was carrying the stun cane and swiped the workers’ cell phones, but denied stun-gunning the other employee, blaming it on one of his cohorts, court records show.
Nieves, a Bronx resident, was held without bail Tuesday at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
His legal aid attorney, Douglas Lyons, declined to comment.
Last year, Nieves served four months in state prison for criminal sale of a controlled substance before he was released. He’s currently on parole.