Photo Courtesy AP/James Keivom

Gunshots stemming from the attempted armed robbery of a jewelry store inside the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel led to a scene of chaos inside the lobby of one of New York's fanciest destinations for hospitality.

Around 2:30 p.m. yesterday, 20-year-old Rafael Ravinovich of Highland Park, NJ, entered Cellini Jewelers located at the back of the Waldorf lobby and announced he was robbing the store. When security guard Gregory Boyle tackled Ravinovich, the robber fired at the retired NYPD vet Boyle and shot him in the left armpit. Another employee then grabbed hold of Ravinovich, followed by hotel security who detained him until the NYPD Hercules team arrived on the scene minutes later.

Other guests of the hotel said they could smell gunpowder as many hid behind columns inside the luxurious lobby during the incident. Police say they recovered two semiautomatic handguns from the scene. And it turned out that the Secret Service agents on the scenereported yesterday were in fact around as security for the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, staying at the nearby InterContinental Barclay New York hotel.