83-year-old man shoved onto sidewalk in violent unprovoked attack: NYPD
An unhinged man in a blood-red scarf viciously shoved an 83-year-old pedestrian onto a Lower East Side sidewalk in a violent, unprovoked attack, cops said Saturday.
The senior was outside of the Fine Fare Supermarket on Grand St. near Lewis St. — about a few blocks to the entrance of the Williamsburg Bridge — just before 8 a.m. on Oct. 14 when he accidentally bumped into his attacker, cops were told.
As the victim walked away, the enraged stranger followed him and shoved the senior onto the ground, cops said.
The suspect ran off down Grand St. toward Madison St., cops said.
The senior suffered cuts to his hands, knees and head during the fall. EMS rushed him to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, where he was treated and released.
No arrests have been made.
The clash was hauntingly similar to the attack on 87-year-old renowned Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern who was shoved to the ground in an unprovoked attack by a 28-year-old woman near the corner W. 28th St. near Eighth Ave. on March 10, 2022.
Her attacker, Lauren Pazienza, was admitedly drunk, high and in a rage after being kicked out of a park when she shoved Gustern as she passed the elderly woman without any provocation.
Gustern, who tutored Blondie’s Debbie Harry and the cast of “Oklahoma!” suffered traumatic head injuries that would claim her life five days later.
Pazienza ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to eight and 1/2 years in prison last month, Manhattan proseuctors said.
On Oct. 18, four days after the 83-year-old man was attacked, Sabir Jones sucker-punched a 26-year-old man and shoved a 30-year-old woman into the side of a moving train at the Fifth Ave-53rd St. station in Midtown in back-to-back unprovoked attacks, cops said.
The woman was struck in the head by the train before she fell to the tracks and was hospitalized in critical condition, cops said. Jones, 39, was arrested in Newark the next day and faces attempted murder charges, cops said.
Detectives on Saturday released surveillance images of the suspect who shoved the 83-year-old man in the hopes someone recognizes him.
He’s described as Black with short hair. At the time of the attack, he was sporting a beard, was dressed in black and wearing a red scarf and red shoes.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
