Store owner charged with hitting customer
Monday, August 10, 2009

A Jersey City liquor store owner was charged with aggravated assault Saturday afternoon after smashing a customer over the head with a coffee table leg, police reports said.

Police arrested Ramon Torres, 59, of East Orange, and charged him with aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon of unlawful purposes, reports said.

Jersey City police were called to a liquor store at 1026 West Side Ave. at 4:20 p.m. on the report of a street fight and met with a 46-year-old Pavonia Street resident who was bleeding from the back of his head, reports said.

The man told police that he went into the liquor store to buy some beer and was refused service, reports said.

The store owner's son tried to get him to leave but ended up in an altercation outside of the store and Torres hit the customer over the head, reports said.

Torres told police that he grabbed a coffee table leg and struck the victim after he struck his son in the nose. The victim had been banned from the store because of an earlier incident, Torres said.

Police took a broken wine bottle in the street and a coffee table leg inside the store as evidence. The victim was treated at Christ Hospital for a laceration to the back of the head.

CHARLES HACK