A Brooklyn father died of an apparent medical attack in the back of a private taxi Tuesday evening — shortly after a violent duo beat him up and robbed him of his chain, cops said.
Authorities said Michael Shelonczyk, 53, was riding in a taxi around 6 p.m. on Neptune Avenue near West 5th Street in Brighton Beach when two robbers broke into the car, opened the door and began punching him in the face and head.
They then tore his chain from his neck and retreated, the cops said.
Sheloncic asked the driver to take him home, but apparently suffered a medical episode along the way, at Avenue Y and East 3rd Street, according to police and sources.
He was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he died, police said.
A Brooklyn native, Sheloncic leaves behind two grieving daughters, including Taylor, 27, who told The Post she never imagined something so devastating would happen to her father.
“This is crazy. I've lived in New York my whole life,” Taylor said. “I was born and raised here… I've never experienced anything like this. “My father was born and raised here.”
“He knew the streets like the back of his hands. We could never in life imagine that something like this could happen to him.
Taylor described her father as “the father every girl dreams of.”
“It sounds corny, but it’s true,” she added. “I feel like you only hear stories about these types of people because only the good ones die young. He was everything to us. He did everything for us. He was the sole provider, the only emotional rock, the one through everything.”
“I'm 27 and the thought of coming out scares me because I can't live without it,” Taylor added. “We do everything together. We eat every meal together, we go shopping together, we go to doctors appointments together, we do everything as a unit.
“We all have the same doctors. We all have the same everything. We're very close. We don't have a big family. It's just the four of us – us and my grandmother, so it's like we do everything together, you know.”
Cheloncic had a passion for music — especially “rock 'n' soul and Motown” — and sold CDs wholesale, his daughter recalls.
Taylor said her father inspired her, and that she would never forget “his silliness, his sense of humor, his laugh, and the silly jokes he would tell.”
“I will miss him more than…this is indescribable,” she added. “I was just telling my grandmother. I don't know how to live without him. He's my life. He taught me everything I know.”
“I talk the way I talk because of him. I walk the way I walk because of him. I talk the way I talk because of him and it's as if someone took my crutch out from under me and I'm left with a broken leg and I have to learn how to walk.”
In a desperate plea, Taylor urged Mayor Eric Adams to put an end to the violence.
“This has to stop,” she added. “I don't know what to do but something has to be done. Whatever you do now, do the opposite.”
Meanwhile, Taylor's sister, Lexi, 20, stood sadly, barely able to collect her thoughts.
“I'm speechless right now,” she said. “It's a lot to take in.”
A neighbor who has lived in the building for more than 10 years said he did not know the family well but often saw Cheloncic “coming out of his house and talking with his friends.”
“New York is crazy right now, nuts, nuts,” he said. “You never want anything bad to happen to anyone, especially when it's your neighbor. It's unfortunate.”
The neighbor added: “Even if you see a dead animal it makes you sad, can you imagine this – especially when you know that this could have been prevented.” “It's terrible, terrible.”
Shelonchik's cause of death is being investigated by the city medical examiner's office.
Surveillance video released by the NYPD on Wednesday shows both the masked and hooded robbery suspects — who are still at large — strolling down the sidewalk.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or in Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also submit their tips by logging on to the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or at X@NYPDTips.
