A Brooklyn teenager lost part of his arm attempting to steal a pair of coveted Air Jordan 8 retro sneakers at gunpoint.
Zachary Sam, 17, arranged to meet Phillip Pierre, 39, at 12:30 p.m. on Friday after spotting Pierre’s Craigslist.com ad for a pair of $190 Air Jordan retro 8 sneakers.
When Sam got into Pierre’s gray SUV he allegedly produced a handgun and stole the coveted Air Jordans from Pierre.
Surveillance video in the area of E. 86th St. near Avenue M in Canarsie, Brooklyn, shows Sam exiting the SUV and calmly walking away.
But instead of driving off, Pierre made a U-turn and hit the gas. The SUV lunged forward and ran over the teenage thief, dragging him under the wheels for a short distance before slamming into a steel fence.
The impact with the fence tore Sam’s right arm off between his elbow and wrist.
Video footage shows Sam squirming out from under the vehicle, leaving his hand, the gun, and the coveted Air Jordan’s behind on the sidewalk.
After a brief scuffle with Pierre and a bystander, Sam ran down the street, his right sleeve flapping in the wind.
“Everyone was yelling ‘Come back! Your arm! You’re going to bleed out!’” said St. Fleur, an off-duty bus driver who was walking on Avenue M with his son.
Sam, bleeding profusely from his stump, boarded a city bus and demanded a bus card from the driver.
“Everyone (on the bus) was screaming because he didn’t have an arm,” St. Fleur told the NY Daily News.
The shocked driver refused to move the bus, allowing Pierre and others to catch up. The father-of-three snatched Sam off the bus, telling the driver “He tried to rob me!”
Sam, dizzy from massive blood loss, stumbled to his home on 86th Street and collapsed.
The teenager was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was upgraded from critical condition to stable condition late Friday.
Doctors tried to reattach his hand but were unsuccessful.
When he recovers from his injuries, Sam faces charges of armed robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.
Pierre will also be charged — with attempted murder.
Pierre’s nephew defended his uncle’s actions in an interview with an ABC News affiliate.
“If somebody puts a gun to your head, and you’re trying to get the cops to catch him, what would you do?” he told ABC 7. “You’re telling me just let him go?”
