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Search On For Men Who Robbed Store In Diamond District

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Investigators remained in the famed Diamond District in Midtown late into the night Tuesday, after police say armed robbers boldly tricked their way into a building, robbed a store, and pistol-whipped the owner.

As CBS2's Tony Aiello reported, the robbery took place at on the eighth floor of the building at 23 W. 47th St. at around 2:30 p.m. -- just off Fifth Avenue, where the annual Veterans Day Parade was taking place.

The NYPD Tactical Unit was called to the scene, and police swarmed the block in search of suspects as they cordoned off the area from pedestrians.

The evidence team investigating the incident worked into the night, taking pictures and retrieving surveillance video.

Police sources told CBS2 the suspects escaped with a "bag full" of undisclosed jewelry, and no hostages were taken.

One of the suspects was well-dressed and posing as a delivery man, and was buzzed into the office, while the other followed behind, police sources said.

Search On For Men Who Robbed Store In Diamond District

He had a white-button down shirt with a dark tie. He walks up the stairs to the eighth floor, and he had said that he had two letters that had to be delivered," said NYPD Deputy Chief William Aubry.

Instead, the man pulled out a gun, opened the door for an accomplice, and emptied the safe.

"At the time of the entry, there were four employees in the store. Suspect number one pulls out a gun and demands the jewelry in the safe he placed into a bag that he was carrying," said NYPD Deputy Chief William Aubry. "A fifth employee returned during this time, and was struck by suspect number one in the head with a gun. Suspect number one then fled."

The business owner who was pistol-whipped by the gunman was identified as Boris Mikhalyov, 56. He was expected to make a full recovery and was not seriously injured.

One suspect is described as a black man, 6 feet tall and 40 to 50 years old. He was wearing a black cap, sunglasses, a goatee, a black long trench coat, a white button down dress shirt with a dark tie, and a black shoulder bag with the letter K on it. He was the one with the handgun, police said.

The second suspect is described as a tall black man 30 to 40 years old. He was wearing a red baseball cap, a black zip-up hoodie, black jeans and black sneakers.

Police released surveillance images of the suspects late Tuesday night.

Diamond District Jewelry Heist Suspects
Suspects wanted in Diamond District heist. (credit: NYPD)

Police locked down the area and later ordered people to evacuate. An Instagram video showed a SWAT team on a rooftop, and workers evacuating nearby buildings under the watchful eye of police.

"We were in the office, so then they came up to us. They said, 'You cannot go out from the building. You have to stay in the building,'" said Diamond District worker Tony Jabaly. "So what's going on? They said, 'Like, two guys tried to rob an office on the eighth floor. So we sat in the office, then the SWAT team came in. They took us out. They said, 'You guys have to leave.'"

Indeed, the brazen midday robbery took many workers by surprise.

Diamond District Jewelry Heist Suspects
Suspects wanted in Diamond District heist. (credit: NYPD)

"Gutsy, greed, stupidity – a little bit of everything wrapped into one," said worker Daryl Dunn.

Jabaly was among hundreds of Diamond District workers told to evacuate. Area worker Oshri Reuven was seen calling his friend, John, who was stuck one floor below the office that was targeted by the robbers.

"Oh my God. I just wanted to check on you; make sure that you're all right," Reuven told his friend. "Don't move out of there until you get instructions from the Police Department."

Search On For Men Who Robbed Store In Diamond District

Among those momentarily caught up in the drama was a Brooklyn woman who was shopping for jewelry-making supplies.

She said she was told "that a man just broke in next door," and she was held in place for a while.

Forty-seventh Street, with hundreds of millions of dollars of jewelry on display, is understandably very security conscious.

"This block is very secure. There's a lot of undercover people. There's a lot of presence of law enforcement, so these things are extremely rare," Reuven said. "I've been in the business 15 years -- I can count the amount of times something like this has happened, and this might be one of the second or third time I can remember."

The New York Daily News reported late Tuesday that the watches stolen from the store were worth an estimated $2 million in total.

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