‘I’ve had a lot of guns put in my face’: 91-year-old veteran recalls NYC mugging
By Tina Moore,Steven Vago and David Meyer
New York Post
November 7, 2021
Walter White is a 91-year-old Korean War veteran. He said he’s “had a lot of guns put in my face.”
The elderly victim robbed at gunpoint in Harlem over the weekend is a 91-year-old Korean War veteran — who was hardly rattled by the mugging because he’s “had a lot of guns put in my face.”
Leaning on his black cane in his doorway, Walter White recalled the Saturday morning stickup to The Post Sunday.
“It was just one of ’em things,” the nonagenarian said casually. “I opened my door for this guy and come to find I have a .38 in my face.”
Police said two men — one carrying a gun — knocked on White’s door in the building on Edgecombe Avenue around 8 a.m., demanding his cellphone and cash.
One of the men flashed a gun, while the other served as a lookout, as White went to get $270 and phone.
The suspects then fled on foot.
White, who served as a sergeant in the Korean War from 1950-’55, had moved into the apartment two weeks ago and doesn’t even have furniture yet.
Still, he hopes the creeps got what they needed with his cash.
The image of the robbery suspect is posted in the lobby of the Harlem building
“He needed the money and I gave him what I had,” he said. “I just hope that he do good with the money he got from me.”
Asked how he felt about being targeted in the brazen theft, White seemed to shrug it off.
“I’m a veteran,” he said. “I fought in the Korean War so you wouldn’t understand how I felt.
A 90-year-old man was robbed at gunpoint in Harlem, Nov. 6, 2021
“I’ve been around quite a bit. He said he was told that I had some money. I gave him something to satisfy him. It’s not an easy thing but it happens,” said White, who believes the robbery was random. “This is New York. I’ve been in New York 71 years now.”
He then looked back to his time in war.
“You wouldn’t understand it,” he repeated. “I’ve had a lot of guns put in my face. I still have a bullet in my left hip from the war.
Walter White shows his injuries from the Korean war
“This is from hand-to-hand combat,” White said, rolling up his gray sweatshirt and showing a scar on his forearm.
“If I wasn’t a strong guy in those days I wouldn’t be here … it was kill or be killed. That’s why I got this,” he said, gesturing to his scar. “Because I killed. I wouldn’t be here.”
Neighbors said the suspects had been buzzing other apartments posing as the super.
Maurisa Westbury, 47, a business analyst who lives in the building, said there have been two other robberies there recently.
“There are a lot of bad apples living in buildings, people coming and going all times of the night,” she said, adding that she’d like to see more police in the area.
“We’d like to see them increase foot traffic, hang out more in the neighborhood, walking up and down and stopping like they do in other neighborhoods,” said Westbury. “We didn’t have these problems pre-pandemic.”
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