Update: Arrest Made in 7-11 Employee Assault

VILLAS – Lower Township Police have arrested a suspect for last week’s aggravated assault of a clerk at the Villas 7-11 Store.
Detectives worked to identify the suspect through video photos and streaming video from surveillance cameras at the 7-11 Store that captured the actual attack of the clerk being struck and knocked unconscious.
On Jan. 24 at approximately 4:30 a.m., Lower Township Police Dispatch received a call from the clerk at the Villas 7-11 store stating that he was assaulted by two men.
Officers arrived on scene and found the male clerk, Rida Abdelwahed, age 22, bleeding from lacerations to the face and head.
The clerk advised the officers that a white male wearing blue jeans with a white hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, wearing a white wool hat, walked into the store and began to verbally harass the clerk at the register. The subject then walked outside and began to walk towards the rear of the store. The clerk than walked to the back of the store and went outside to check on the subject.
At this time the clerk became involved in a physical confrontation with a second white male, who was waiting behind the store. He was described as wearing a white sweatshirt with light colored jeans. The clerk then tried to re-enter the store when he was sucker punched by the first subject who had been in the store earlier, and knocked to the ground.
The subject then went over to the clerk and struck him several more times in the face knocking him unconscious. The victim stated that a third white male was also present at the time and was wearing blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt, however this subject did not take part in the assault.
The victim stated that he believes he lay on the ground for a substantial period of time before regaining consciousness and calling the police.
Investigation on scene determined that the actual assault occurred at approximately 3:30 a.m. The clerk was transported by Lower Township Rescue.The video then shows the suspect, identified as Sergio Cortina, 21, of the 100 Block of Cove Avenue in North Cape May, repeatedly striking the victim while he lay on the ground unconscious.
Cortina was charged on a warrant with one count of aggravated assault, a third degree crime, and one count of endangering an injured victim, also being a third degree crime.
Cortina was lodged in Cape May County Jail on $15,000 cash bail set by Municipal Court Judge, David DeWeese.
The investigation was conducted by Patrolman William McPherson and the Lower Township Detective Division.