QUEENS, N.Y. - Police are still searching for the person responsible for stabbing and choking a shop owner in Queens last weekend.

Investigators say Raed Ali, 21, was working at his brother's bodega at 98-51 63rd Road in Rego Park on June 15 when an unidentified man stabbed his neck and put him in a chokehold, dragging him to the floor.

Police say it then allowed an accomplice to steal $2,200 from the register.

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That man was arrested and later identified as Christopher Castellano, a 32-year-old homeless man.

He has been charged with attempted murder, assault and harassment.

Riad Ali, the victim's brother and store owner, says he's been beefing up security, but nothing like this has happened in area before.

"I have installed another four cameras, on top of the four I had. I installed a better system," Ali said.

Yali was in the intensive care unit with stab wounds to the neck, but his brother says he is now back home.

Last week, Mohamed Nasser Awawdah was fatally stabbed after asking a group of men loitering outside a bodega in Inwood where he worked to move.

This week, a Bronx man was shot dead inside Funfair Deli in Harlem as a result of a dispute. 

“They know it is a cash business and they know we are not well protected so it makes us and so it is more easier for them to target us," said Francisco Marte, General Secretary at The Bodega Association USA.

The Bodega Association is renewing its call for legislation requiring bodegas to install panic buttons allowing workers to secretly alert police during emergencies.

"More than 14 hours a day or 12 hours a day we have to make at the store so please we need the help and we need some protection," Marte said.

Until something is done, Riad Ali has some advice for other bodega owners.

“Look over their shoulder, every time they open and every time they close," he added.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at or on Twitter @NYPDTips.