55-year-old Peter Ly is the long time owner of the Rainbow Deli in the 5200 block of Market Street in West Philadelphia. It was shuttered Tuesday night in light of the circumstances, but he is highly regarded in the area.
Pamela Williams and her family operated a bingo hall on the block for over 20 years.
"And Mr. Ly was an intricate part of the community, always having this deli vibrant and available most of the time, he stayed opened as long as the bingo hall did, and we could always reach out to him for change," Williams said.
It was about 11:30 a.m. this morning that Mr. Ly was about to make the deli's weekly deposit at Woori America Bank in the 7500 block of Front Street in Cheltenham.
Surveillance video shows at that time a dark colored occupied by three black males driving him. Police say they pulled him into the car, shot him, and robbed Ly of thousands of dollars.
"I heard 'pow, pow, pow' and I just ignored it because stuff like that doesn't really happen around here," witness Alecia Brown said.
Video shows the car pulling away from the scene and driving down Cheltenham towards Philadelphia.
Ly's wife Jennie showed up at the scene, but she was quickly rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center where he was undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds to the pelvis and legs. Police believe the suspects may have followed Ly or certainly knew of his routine.
"The information we had is there was a male walking up and down in front of the bank originally and the car pulled up and grabbed the victim," Cheltenham Police Deputy Chief Kevin O'Brien said.
Police are looking for a dark colored-possibly black-Volvo S60 similar. Witnesses say it had dark tinted windows.
While Ly continues to fight for his life, police are hoping that someone will recognize the armed bandits and/or the S60 dark colored Volvo they were using. Anyone with information is being asked to call Cheltenham police.