Charles Augusto Jr., owner of Blue Flame in Harlem, has stayed in the neighborhood through its dark, dangerous period, a revival and the latest downturn.

NEW YORK Charles Augusto Jr. was more than busy when he started working at Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame in 1960 for $75 a week, shuttling between the kitchens of hotels like the Plaza and the sprawling apartments of Astors and Rockefellers to repair their stoves.

But lately, restaurants have been closing more often than opening. On Thursday, Augusto sold only one item, a deep fryer, and by 3 p.m. he and his two workers were settling into a sluggish afternoon in Harlem.

Four men the police said were robbers broke the silence by pushing their way past the scrawled sign that states Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Ignoring Augustos pleas that there was no money around the customer had paid by check the men, one armed with a gun, began to struggle with one of his workers and apparently wrote off Augusto as an old man not worth their trouble.

Left alone, he grabbed a Winchester pump-action shotgun he had kept around since the store was robbed 20 years ago. He was not sure it would even work. It worked, three times.

Seconds later, two of the robbers were dead, the other two seriously wounded.

Augusto is being hailed as a neighborhood hero. He is one of the thousands of workers and residents who stayed put in Harlem through the neighborhoods darkest days, its sputtering revival, and latest downturn.

Just two years ago, Augusto, who became part owner of the company in 1978, and his partner turned down offers to sell their two buildings on West 125th Street, including the one that houses the store, for $9 million, an amount they would be unlikely to fetch today.

But Augusto, 72, was back at the store on Friday, in his navy blue work clothes. Ive been here 50 years, he said Friday. I dont really want to go nowhere. What do I do then? he asked. Im not going to let these hoodlums run me out of here.

The news of the shootings alarmed many of the business owners, workers and residents who believed that Harlem had left its feeling of constant danger behind.

On Friday, the police identified the two men who died as James Morgan, 29, and Raylin Footmon, 21, both of East Harlem. Bernard Witherspoon, 22, of East Harlem, and Shamel McCloud, 21, of East Elmhurst, Queens, were in stable condition at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center on Friday. The police said they would be charged with robbery.

Despite all the congratulations, Augusto said he wished that the men had left when he urged them to and that he would have not had to use the shotgun.

I know the pain these people must feel, he said, referring to the families of the two who were killed. I dont know what feels worse, now or when my only son died.