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Getting Shot Twice for His Nokia 3390

Williamsburg Bridge

Yesterday morning at 7AM, a 26 year-old Lower East Side resident was shot twice on the Willamburg Bridge while biking to work - for his cellphone! Marcin Muchalski, a photographer and waiter, was headed to work at the Southside Lounge in Williamsburg when a man robbed him. Muchalski refused to give up his cellphone, a blue Nokia 3390, which led the robber to shoot him in the leg. Muchalski continued to argue, saying, "Hey, man, I'm a hard-working guy. I don't make much money. I don't have money on me. Let me go," prompting the robber to hit him on the head and shoot him in the arm. Muchalski managed to bike run away, calling 911 on his cellphone, which led to the arrest of 47-year-old Julius Griffin. Muchalski is at Bellevue in stable condition.

Now Gothamist knows what it's like to have a serious connection with our cellphone - there are so many phone numbers in there. But when a gun is being waved at our face, we'd probably give it up - would you?

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Comments [rss]

  • John Micheals

    The guy almost lost his life. I'm glad he's ok though and whats this talk about the 3390. It's a good phone, I broke the screen on my 3660 or what ever that peice of crap was and I don't wanna think about what happened to my brothers Treo.

  • jennifer

    yeah!

  • Paw

    The second thing is that he from beginning already tried to call police and say where

    he is. I've talked to him and he forgot about

    that when he was talking to journalists.

    People dont understand what happend.

    If he would give his cell phone another

    person could be wounded or dead.

  • willy

    OK guys,

    I happen to know Marcin. The media once again is not quite giving the whole picture. He though it was a fake gun! If you're a tough guy and a fast runner, and someone puts a fake gun up to you, and you think you can make it out of there, would you give up your phone.....? The very same phone you're going to call 911 and get the assailant's ass in jail?

    After the second bullet was fired he would have given him everything! Instead he started to run!

    The whole situation is a lot more understandable than the headlines...duh!

  • Tomo

    No coz, jestescie po prostu skonczonymi glupkami... brak mi slow... najwiekszy glupol z Polski jest madrzejszy od Was... Pozdrawiam Jennifer:) Marcin to moj kumpel ze szkoly i ciesze sie, ze zyje...

  • Paw

    The man almost lost his life and you are still

    talking about stupid cell phones, I can't understend you people, I dont think that any of you could say "you must be kidding" with gun set to your face :)

  • Garbo

    Did anyone SEE the guy that shot him? Fricken scary looking, man! Forget the gun! Not only would I have given him my cell phone, I would have given him my friggin SOUL if he asked. Damn, that kid was brave AND stupid.

  • Baxistreet

    This incident certainly raises the issue of whether the East River bridges are safe for bikers, runners, walkers, etc.

  • Gail

    I jog on the Williamsburg Bridge regularly and I often pass scary looking folks. I rarely see the police on the bridge, unlike the Brooklyn Bridge which always seems well protected.

  • diggum

    no matter how tricked up the new phones are, I keep going back to my banged-up, champagne Nokia 3360. I don't need the other crap - I just need to make calls, dammit - and no other phone has the near-perfect UI as this badboy.

    I do NOT recommend anything Samsung. What horrid pieces of crap. When I want to hang up a call, either because I'm done or in disgust, it feels so much more effective to be able to hit one button. My old Samsung required me to hit the End button up to 3 times before my conversation was actually over, and each time with a significant delay between pushes. By the time I was done, I was no longer pissed off!

  • Matt

    Who knows how I would react with a gun pointed in my face... but:

    This phone is worth about $16, including the charger. ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64355&item=3087306650&rd=1 )

    How much is his time at Bellevue going to cost?

    Off topic: Why would anyone think it's worth even $4 a month to buy insurance for it? By the way, the insurance most likely has a deductible of $30 or more.

    Matt

  • Joseph

    Can't these motherfuckers rob the people who deserve it? If I was going to rob someone, it would definately be one of these landrover, explorer driving SoB's.

    I guess all the compentent criminals went to the corporate sector.

  • Marcin is a friend of mine. It is weird to read about someone you know in the news, I'm just glad he is doing fine! He is such a great person.

  • Steve Irwin

    Interestingly, a zigzag pattern is also how you're supposed to run away if you're being pursued by an alligator/crocodile. They can run faster than humans, but they have trouble turning sharp corners.

  • Jen

    Thanks for clearing that up. When I read "run away in zigzag" I thought of running away in the broad sense, like getting away. And the zigzag confused me more.

  • Just for the record, the guy ran away on foot not riding his bike:

    "Terrified that the man would shoot him in the back, Mr. Muchalski ran in a frantic zigzag pattern, he said. "I thought it might be my last moment," he said. The man chased him, but then turned back for the bicycle. It had a flat tire, apparently hit by a ricocheting bullet, Mr. Muchalski said the police told him."

    The police later found the guy who shot him with the bicycle.

  • On the one hand, only a asshole lets himself get shot over a cellphone. But on the other, you gotta’ give him credit, he sounds like one tough son of a bitch! Getting shot twice and managing to pedal away like that. He's right up there with 50 Cent as far as I'm concerned.

    Even though it may not have been the best phone, there is still a principle.

  • K.

    hand it over...it's what insurance is for.

  • Kojak

    So Stupid. Buy the damn phone insurance for god's sake. Its only 4 bucks a month!

    He's lucky hes not dead. Even the robber knew the phone wasent worth killing him.

  • i guess the guy didn't have an insurance.

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