Pizza Guy Fights Off Gunman, Then Delivers Pizza

As Mayor Bloomberg continues to contemplate how to reduce the salt intake of New Yorkers, more and more grit is needed to survive on the streets of the city. Today's report from NyPo:

Now that's service!

East Harlem pizza-delivery guy Assami Semde fought off a gun-toting punk -- and still managed to deliver two piping-hot pies.

Semde, 19, was headed to the 25th floor at Taino Towers on East 123rd Street carrying two pizzas from a Famous Famiglia parlor last Friday when he was accosted in the hallway.

Waiting for an answer at the door where he was to deliver the pies, Semde was cornered by two teens wearing hoodies and bandannas -- and packing heat.

One of them "put a gun to my head and said, 'Give me the pizza.' " Semde recalled. "I thought it was a strange game."

The 6-foot-plus Semde put the pizzas on the ground, but, he said, when the gunman bent to get them, "I punched him and pushed him against the elevator."

The other would-be thief joined the scuffle, but Semde got the best of them.

The gunman screamed and ran off, and Semde held the other teen, Albert Alvarez, until cops showed up, authorities said. Alvarez, 19, was arrested for attempted robbery, authorities said...

Semde, who arrived from his native Burkina Faso four months ago to study English, said that although the West African country is one of world's poorest, it is "better emotionally" than the United States.... Before the brave teen went to the police station to file a robbery report, he delivered two pizzas as ordered: One pepperoni, one cheese.

Both still hot.