Every day, the American traditions of freedom, equality, the pursuit of happiness, and faith are defended on the streets of Queens. Right now, it is a block-by-block battle. We could lose America and our city unless we fight back. But just maybe, we are in the times of an Easter-like “divine appointment” whereby we can renew trust and strength in our faith and country.
Nowhere is the upholding of American traditions more evident than in Elmhurst, Queens in the area of Broadway and Baxter Avenue.
There, Elmhurst Hospital served as the fortress at the epicenter of the COVID pandemic in America. Even in normal times, ambulances and police cars whip in and out of this premier emergency care hospital. The neighborhood is the most ethnically and nationality diverse place in the world, according to the United States Census. More languages are spoken here than in any other place in the world. It is a melting pot for cooking up the American Dream.
On Saturday night, around 9 pm, on March 26, an assault on the American dream took place. Eun Hee Chang, a 61-year-old immigrant from Korea and home care attendant, was stabbed and robbed right across the street from the hospital. Then, the neighborhood came together from across racial and ethnic lines to fight off the wolves and support the wounded.
A father, “Pops”– the name that the 68-year-old Cazim was known by neighbors and family, and his son Louie Sulijovic engaged in a desperate battle of fists versus knives to save Chang in front of their pizzeria. Their immigrant roots go back to Albania. The police rushed in, the hospital tended the wounds, and neighbors came together to help the victim and heroes. This is their story told from the diary of one local neighbor Jay Yee, a Chinese American from California.
The neighbor doesn’t know if he was there, whether he could have leaped into the face of slashing blades as the pizza guys did, but we also heard that he was doing his part by visiting the hospital of the victims every day. This was too good of a story of the American tradition at work to pass up. We persuaded him to provide us with his diary. It is not the only viewpoint of the events, of course, but it is the best one that we have read so far.
A graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary and an ordained minister, Yee is particularly sensitive to how the experiences on Baxter Avenue tell a story that has some parallels to the Easter Story. Yee says he sees an Easter meaning in these events. He is often struck by the sense that life is so often random in its events. Terrible things just happen. Violent assaults and ethnic hate crimes just seem to pick random victims. But some of these end up as “divine appointments,” like the assaults on Baxter Avenue, that brought together Yee and his friends Louie and Pops in a way that they had never imagined. Yee says, “I imagine such things happened back in Jesus’ time too.”
“He was preaching about all the good things that come from God (James 1:17), then he was struck down. Now, that was a real divine appointment. Jesus knew it was coming. And one thing he knew, that is encouraging to me now, he knew that God would resurrect him from the dead. This reversal from death to life was miraculous.
I think about my friends Louie and Pops as instruments of God’s grace, who saved a woman from death so that she could have a more full life. She herself said at a press conference that the help that she received during this incident is the first time that she really felt part of America. Not speaking English well, she felt somewhat isolated, but now she feels the connection with Louie and Pops. It is a new beginning. I pray life will be full for her.”
The story actually starts a long time ago, like most good neighborhood stories of friendship and camaraderie.
From Yee’s Diary:
October 5, 2009
On the wall of Louie’s Pizzeria & Restaurant on Baxter Ave in Elmhurst, Queens, there is a decoration with two small baseball bats and the date October 5, 2009, that commemorates the opening of the restaurant. This is the exact same date that I closed on my apartment also on Baxter Ave, not far from the pizzeria, and moved in.
Previously, I lived a long walk down Broadway near its intersection with Queens Boulevard. So, I had moved from the south side of Elmhurst to its north side near Roosevelt Avenue. I walked around my new neighborhood. I am a Christian, so I believe in destiny. I wondered what God would have for me here. (Little did I realize how entwined with Louie’s Pizzeria and Restaurant that I would become.)
I don’t remember much about that day in 2009. If Louie’s had a “Grand Opening” sign on it, I most likely walked inside to see what was going on. Either then or very shortly thereafter, my friendship with Louie and Pops began. We developed one of those rich neighborhood relationships that the city is famous for. We were friends in the neighborhood, though we didn’t know too much about each other beyond our daily acquaintance. But I saw them almost every week, sometimes a few times a week, for over twelve years. So, we were well-acquainted neighbors. When I saw Louie or Pops, it was like arriving home.
Whenever I came to the pizzeria, Louie was normally behind the register, taking orders, answering phones, scribbling orders on the pads. Louie knew I would order my usual, a slice of “pepperoni- mushroom.”
When things slowed down, Louie would be standing by the entrance for a smoke. Walking by, I would say “What’s up!” And he would reply back “What’s up!” It was like a hand-slap of high fives going by on the sidewalk. If there was any big neighborhood news, then we might stop to talk about that.
Pops would usually be cooking at the stove, or when it wasn’t busy, would be downstairs in the basement preparing items for cooking. He always prepared a fresh pasta of the day. His cooking is really savory. Every now and then, I would bump into Pops on the street when he was out getting stuff. Sometimes, he would wear a T-shirt proclaiming, “Proudly American.”
At downtimes, he would be at the dining tables sitting and resting. If I came for a slice while Pops was on a break, I would sit down with him, and we would usually talk about baseball and football.
Not surprisingly in Elmhurst, Queens, he is a huge Mets fan. I do like Mr. Met, but I am really a Dodgers fan, having been born and raised in Los Angeles. However, I wouldn’t mind the Dodgers moving back to Brooklyn.
Pops likes the Jets (who played in Queens for 20 years), so he has the full pack of Queens’ contact sports. I never heard him talk about tennis or the U.S. Open. And he wasn’t really that much into basketball, though he did follow the Knicks for a few years.
Being right by the Elmhurst Hospital, many of the medical staff and employees would frequent the pizzeria during mealtime. Lots of NYPD would also come by to eat or just chat with Louie and Pops. They were big supporters of the police and for a while had a blue-lettered banner in their picture window proclaiming, “We support the NYPD.” You don’t find many de-policing advocates in the neighborhood.
Whenever I hosted a card game at my apartment, if there were enough players who wanted pizza, I would order a pepperoni mushroom pie from Louie’s around 6:30 PM. I would then ask one of the other card players, fellow actor Tony Cheng, who lives on the other side of Broadway, to pick it up when it was ready and come to my apartment. I would be available to let the other card players in as they arrived.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
This morning, I went on a long walk back to my old neighborhood to the Kung Fu Bubble Tea store on Justice Avenue. I am pretty obsessed with the events in Ukraine and sports news, so I went straight to these topics on my phone as I drank milk tea. I don’t usually read much local news.
I was hosting a card game that evening but didn’t order pizza like I usually do because some of the card players were eating elsewhere. In addition to Tony, I expected his brother Paul and Paul’s daughter Bella to come. Aaron Foldenauer also came. He is a corporate lawyer that has an interest in the arts (a mutual interest as I am a member of SAG-AFTRA Screen Actors Guild). He is also very interested in politics. He was a mayoral candidate, placing 9th among the 13 people running in the Democratic primary. Paul and Bella were going to join other family members to eat dinner. That left only Tony and me wanting pizza, so we didn’t order. That fateful omission came back to strike us like a smack in the face.
We started around 7:30 pm. Since my apartment faces toward the hospital, we heard the usual sirens. Aaron later told me that he noticed some sirens blaring at some point, but discounted their exceptionalism. So, none of us noticed anything extraordinary.
We play a game called Feudalism, where the goal is to end up as king or queen rather than a commoner or slave. The slaves can launch a revolution if they have four of kind in cards. That night, Tony and I did pretty well at this game, and I was a king for a few hands, but then I crashed into slavery toward the end. A humbling reminder that but for the grace of God go we.
And amazing enough, my guests all took pathways home that missed going by the hospital and Louie’s Pizzeria and Restaurant.
That same night, around 9 pm, just a short distance away from us, there was a life-and-death struggle going on in front of Louie’s pizzeria. My friends almost died. We didn’t know what was going on.
A grainy grey video from a surveillance camera shows that at about 9 PM, the diminutive-looking Eun Hee Chang was walking down the sidewalk of Baxter Avenue trailed by three tall, big attackers. One named Robert Whack, 30, and one named Supreme Gooding, 19. Whack had 39 bags of heroin on him, according to police sources quoted in the New York Daily News. They were wanted in recent cases of assault with a weapon and grand larceny.
Chang says that they grabbed her bag. One of them also stabbed her in the back. A commotion on the sidewalk started to explode. Several people whipped out phones to film the incident but only two brave souls leaped to physically fight off the attackers.
Pops told me that he saw the commotion and asked the camera-holding onlookers what was happening. They told him she was being robbed. Pops saw that they are doing nothing to stop the attack so he poked his head inside the pizzeria and told Louie to call the police. Then, they went into action. The ensuing action resulted in Louie being stabbed once (very, very close to the spine, too close for comfort) and Pops nine times. Both had their lungs punctured.
Pops told me that his mind was on Louie the whole time. He was desperately worried for his son. He never mentioned that he was worried about himself, and they both firmly say that they would do it again.
They held down two of the perpetrators (the males, one of whom Pops described as 6′ 5″. The third, I think, was a female and she got away) until the NYPD came. Both were incredible heroes.
Under police questioning, the attackers quickly shuffled their stories into a tale that they were just helping the woman pick up her bag and were set upon by two attackers coming out of the pizzeria. (But as they say, let’s play the video.)
Sunday-Monday, March 27-28, 2022
These days are sort of a blur. Some Sundays, I preach at a Chinese church in Poughkeepsie or in New Jersey (via Zoom right now). But not this Sunday. I went to a Chinese congregation at the Reformed Church on Broadway instead of my usual trip to Manhattan to attend the Downtown Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Louie’s pizzeria is usually closed on Sunday, so I didn’t drop by. I visited my bubble tea place and surfed CNN. My prayers usually scattered through the day, but I wasn’t praying for my friends’ health. I think I prayed for Ukraine.
I was concentrating on sports news and Ukraine happenings. I am really concerned about some congregations in Kyiv with which I am familiar through the church-planting group Redeemer City to City, the people, and the potentially catastrophic effects on the world’s well-being. I think that there are quite a few of us that are obsessed with the latest news from the war front. It is exhausting and sometimes disheartening.
For some reason, neither I nor the rest of my card-playing group knew about what happened on Baxter Avenue on Saturday night. When I was home, I watched my secret vices, the cartoon Duck Tales, and the Marvel shows. So, I was a little surprised by the news that arrived on Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
I walked by Louie’s Pizzeria, and it was closed.
I thought, “This is strange. They should be open!”
Thoughts ran through my mind.
“They close for around two weeks during the summer when they visit Europe.”
Hmm, “It wasn’t summer, but much of what is happening during the pandemic hasn’t been normal.”
I had a relaxing thought, “Maybe, they were just taking another vacation or something.” During the height of the pandemic, they were fierce at the stoves cooking for the first responders.
“They deserve a rest.”
Around 6 PM that evening, my friend Alex Ho called from Manhattan Chinatown to tell me that a lady, Louie, and Pops had been attacked. He saw the news on the internet. I had taken Alex to Louie’s Pizzeria a few times, so he thought I would want to know.
I was shocked. I searched online and read one of the reports in the New York Post. I was blown away. I can hardly remember what I thought or what I said. I read that they had walked wounded over to the hospital.
I was dressed real casual, sweatshirt and boxer shorts. So, I changed clothes real fast. I remember buttoning up my shirt (how well we remember this when we are trying to hurry!). I put on jeans, jacket, and backpack, which I always drag around as a force of habit.
Then, I crossed the street to the hospital side, went to Broadway, and turned right to go through the entrance in front. At that point in time, there were no news people milling around, that I could discern. It seemed to be a normal, typical evening at the hospital.
Elmhurst Hospital allows only two visitors at a time, and there were a few relatives and family friends waiting, so it took me a while (slightly over an hour) before I was able to see Pops and Louie.
When I went upstairs to the third floor, Louie’s room was crowded so I went to Pops’ room. Both Louie and Pops entered the hospital, each with a collapsed lung. However, Louie had only one knife wound, but Pops had eight or nine wounds.
I told Pops that I just found out and came right away. Louie walked in, smiling, and greeted me. I could tell Louie was doing well, I couldn’t tell that he was stabbed or that he needed hospitalization. I told them “Thank you” for their kindness and brave action for coming to the aid of the Korean lady. I told them that everyone was calling them heroes and I said that they were indeed that.
Later after Louie left Pops’ room, another visitor named Nor came by. We chatted for a bit. Then I asked Pops if I could pray for him and he said yes.
Then, I prayed for a few minutes. I thanked God for the courage of Louie and Pops, and thanked God for Jesus, who showed courage in leaving the safest place, heaven, for a much more dangerous place, earth, to save us. I prayed for NYC for the crime and violence and that our government and church and other institutions would be able to address the crime, violence, mental illness, and homelessness. I prayed for the NYPD to be safe and for the courage and risks that they take in protecting us, for the perpetrators to reform. I prayed for the recovery of the victims. (I may have even thrown in Ukraine and Russia, I don’t remember, but Europe had been foremost on my mind since February.).
I went home and emailed my fellow card players.
Since that Tuesday evening visit, I have come to the hospital every day to see Louie and Pops, usually in the morning and again in the afternoon, and yet again in the evening (along with numerous relatives, family friends, customers, hospital staff, NYPD and others).
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
I saw Pops and Louie in the morning at the hospital, along with a couple of their relatives. Louie was discharged in the evening.
After Louie was discharged, Pops wanted him to rest more, so sometimes when I texted Louie I would say something like, “Pops wants you to rest.”
And when I came to the hospital, I would text Louie every hour or so to give him updates on his dad, to allow him to stay at home and recuperate.
Louie would send a line like “Ok, thanks, bro.”
Thursday, March 31, 2022
I posted photos of that day’s visit on Facebook, one with Pops and myself in the morning and a later photo with Pops and myself and Louie, who came to visit his dad in the afternoon. Many people made comments on Facebook, and I told them I would pass them on to the Suljovics. Every day that I came I told them that many people were saying “Thank you” and that they were heroes and praying for their recovery.
Pops would tell me, “I am not a hero. I am just here to help.”
The attackers were pretty big. Louie and Pops are about 5 feet, seven, or eight inches tall. But they are sturdy looking. I am more thin, like a noodle; I wonder if I would have just froze in the situation. However, I take courage from the father and son. I just love them more for that.
Friday, April 1, 2022
I visited Pops in the morning at the hospital. I told him that Representative Grace Meng was holding a 1 PM press conference at Louie’s Pizzeria. He didn’t even know that until I told him. I left shortly to do a few things and to go to the press conference. Eun Hee Chang, the lady who was assaulted, came to the press conference. Afterward, I asked Louie if he was tired, and he told me he was exhausted.
Following the press conference, I headed out to Long Island for a funeral wake for the daughter of a long-time friend Hannah from California, and her husband George, who is retired from the New York Police Department. Their seven-year-old had suddenly collapsed, slipped into a coma and passed away.
Monday, April 4, 2022
The doctors talked about discharging Pops, but he was feeling very tired and weak. Of course, he had lost a lot of blood plus the medical staff drew blood for testing. We were in touch with Louie by phone and he wanted his dad to stay in the hospital if he was feeling this way. His doctor said that afternoon he would need a blood transfusion and they prepared the paperwork for him to sign since it was a relatively risky procedure. Pops signed off and was to be given the transfusion later at night. This is perhaps the day I felt most anxious since there was some measure of risk involved. I privately asked some of my friends at Redeemer Presbyterian Church to pray for Pops, plus also a friend from Texas. Pops slept a lot and appeared very worn. But fortunately, I would find out the following day that the transfusion did its job.
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Pops was discharged shortly before 2 PM!
He was taken downstairs in a wheelchair but walked out on his own at the 41st Avenue entrance. At the doors, Louie said he wanted to video Pops walking out to post it online. Neither Louie nor myself thought quick enough since I could have videoed them walking out together. He asked his dad to wait for curbside while he got the car, but Pops insisted on walking to the car. They thanked me for my support and told me they could never repay me, to which I replied that we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for their courage and selfless heroism. (Not to mention they are my friends!)
Since we had exited on 41st Ave, I walked around the block to my apartment and happened to bump into Eun Hee Chang, who was looking for the Emergency Room to have her stitches removed. Her English is very limited, so she was having a lot of trouble. She showed me a slip of paper or a note on her phone that said that she needed her stitches to be pulled out. So, I accompanied her to the Emergency Room. I took a photo with her (and posted it on Facebook later that afternoon). I also showed her photos of myself with Louie and Pops as we sat in the ER waiting area. I texted Louie and Pops the photo of herself and myself, and Louie responded for me to send her his greetings, to which I did the best I could given her limited English.
During the stay at the hospital, Louie and Pops discussed how much rest would be needed and when the pizzeria might reopen. They thought perhaps around 3 weeks after discharge might be sufficient. A tentative reopening date for Louie’s Pizzeria would be the first week of May.
I’m sure Louie, Pops, and Eun Hee Chang are exhausted. I am somewhat emotionally spent after all the days visiting in the hospital and passing on the wonderful comments from so many of their supporters (customers, neighbors, friends, others).
Many of my Asian friends on Facebook wanted me to express their appreciation to Louie and Pops for helping the Korean lady. With all the terrible news recently of unprovoked attacks in NYC, many of them against Asians and especially Asian females, that was not unexpected. Many in the Asian community are grateful to these men for their heroic actions.
I remember Louie when asked if such an event happened again, would he jump in. He did not hesitate and said he would. And it would not matter what race that person was, Asian or non-Asian. I am so grateful to God for them since it is by his grace that we have America and men who are willing to risk their own lives to aid others. The ultimate picture of such bravery is Jesus, who not only risked his life but gave it up, at infinite cost to himself, to redeem us. I am grateful that I could be an extension, an instrument of God’s grace to touch the lives of others in the name of Jesus. He is risen!
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