[NYPOST] Staffers at the highly acclaimed restaurant Frenchette knew they had the accused subway kicker in their midst — they just had to figure out how to keep him ’til cops arrived.Obviously everybody liked him. Nobody could believe he dunnit.
Suspect Marc Gomez — who was caught on shocking video stomping an elderly female straphanger in the head on a Bronx train March 10 — worked as a dishwasher at the posh Tribeca eatery.
But he had his mind on bigger things. Like Sing Sing.
So after Gomez’s coworkers recognized him in the video footage released by cops Friday, someone at the restaurant “called the police immediately and gave them his name and address,’’ a Frenchette source told The Post on Monday.
"Hello?... Is dis da cops?... Lissen, dis is Mahmoud da Weasel..."
“We wanted to make sure we did everything the right way and he was picked up as quickly as possible,’’ said the source at the eatery, which was named a 2019 James Beard Award best-new-restaurant finalist.
"Thanks, Mahmoud! We owe ya one!"
“We thought the police would pick him up at home on Friday, but they couldn’t find him at his address, so detectives came to the restaurant on Saturday just after 9 a.m. to get him at work.”
"Open up in dere! Dis is da po-lice!"
"This is a restaurant. We're already open."
"Oh."
The source said that as employees waited for the cops to arrive, they were careful to play it cool with the unsuspecting Gomez.
"What're youse guys lookin' at?"
"Nothing, Gomez!"
“There were not many staff in the kitchen at that time, he was one of the first there, and we made sure not to spook him,’’ the source said.
"We replaced the bullets in his gun with unshelled peanuts!"