Group of men caught on video attacking Norristown pizzeria owner

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Thursday, February 25, 2021
Suspects wanted in brutal attack on business owner
Police in Norristown are investigating after a business owner was brutally attacked last week.

NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Norristown police and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office are investigating after a pizzeria owner was brutally attacked by a group of men.

Ying Ngov, a 56-year-old immigrant from China, owns and operates Mama Venezia's Pizzeria.

On Friday, Feb. 19, security video showed a group of men outside the pizza shop looking through the windows. They put on masks and run into the store.

The group is later seen running out of the pizzeria after Ngov said they stole beers from her business.

Ngov went after them.

"I say, 'You don't pay for beer yet' and they walked out," recalled Ngov. "They don't want to pay. They keep running. So I run too."

Before she approached the suspects, Ngov grabbed her neighbor's snow shovel, as she was completely outnumbered.

"I protect myself. I know, maybe, they were going to hit me," said Ngov.

And they did. One of the grown men is seen on video violently pushing her to the ground, but Ngov got right up.

Then another suspect punched her in the face and she dropped to the ground. The suspects even continued to beat on her while she was down.

Ngov said she blacked out.

"I don't know nothing from when they beat me up until I get up," said Ngov, whose face is now bruised and swollen.

The 56-year-old pizzeria owner is known to her customers as the kindest woman.

"I know people that come here and never had enough money and they always try to accommodate," said Norristown neighbor Wendy Quarels.

All Ngov really wants is to be paid for the beers by the suspects that brutally beat her.

But her son-in-law, Bryan Skipper, a Marine vet, says an arrest must be made and just hopes this wasn't racially motivated.

"You hear things on the news where some people who are of Asian descent they keep to themselves, they try not to cause trouble. I hate to think that was the reason," Skipper said.

Ngov had a message for the suspects.

"Don't do bad like that because people work hard every day," Ngov said.

The family has filed a police report. So far, police say they haven't heard anything on the investigation.