Madison Ave. jeweler slain

NEW YORK - A jewelry store worker was shot to death in a midday robbery yesterday in a shop on posh Madison Avenue, police said.

Two people were working at R.S. Durant at about 12:25 p.m. when a man in his 30s wearing a blue overcoat, sunglasses, a black wool hat and a scarf around his face came into the Upper East Side store and said he was robbing the place, police said.

The workers refused to fill two canvas bags the gunman brought, police said. The suspect took out the clip from his semiautomatic pistol and showed it to the employees, saying, "You think I'm kidding? This is real" before putting the clip back in and firing once, said an NYPD spokesman.

Henry Menahem, 72, was hit once in the chest.

The gunman, who is still at large, smashed a jewelry case and loaded bags with diamond necklaces and other jewels before fleeing south on Madison Avenue. At the time, no customers were in the store, located between 75th and 76th streets.