Report: NYC Jeweler Killed in Madison Ave. Robbery

A 71-year-old man working in a jewelry store on Manhattan's upscale Madison Avenue was shot to death in a brazen midday robbery, and police were still seeking the killer Wednesday afternoon, according to news reports.

The incident happened at R.S. Durant at about 12:25 p.m. when a man believed to be in his 30s, wearing a blue overcoat and gray slacks, entered the store and announced that he was robbing the place, police told the Associated Press (AP). The man then fired a semiautomatic pistol, hitting the worker in the chest and fled the small shop-which is located between 75th and 76th Streets in the city's Upper East Side-running south with an undetermined amount of merchandise.

No customers were believed to be in the store at the time, police said. The victim was taken to nearby Lenox Hill hospital with a chest wound, and was subsequently pronounced dead.

A private security guard who patrols the stretch of Madison Avenue, told the AP that a man was smoking in front of the store when a tall man wearing a ski mask and sunglasses pushed him inside and shut the door behind him. The shooting happened very quickly, she said.

Madison Avenue is home to numerous high-end jewelers, with roughly 55 jewelers and fine watch shops doing business between 57th and 86th Streets, including names such as Cartier, David Yurman, Graff and Judith Ripka.

Other shopkeepers said that R.S. Durant is a relatively new store and was about a year old, according to the AP report.