Bump on NYC street leads man to shove woman, 71, to the ground in Midtown Manhattan; ‘It’s affected me a lot,’ says victim
A bump on the street led a man to throw a 71-year-old woman to the ground on a Midtown sidewalk, police and the victim said Saturday.
“Somebody, out of the blue, just assaulted me — he picked me up and threw me on the ground,” said the woman, who asked not to be named.
“It happened two blocks up from Macy’s on a crowded street,” she told the Daily News. “It’s affected me a lot. I’m trying to get my confidence back. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In the latest report of a violent stranger-upon-stranger attack, the woman was walking home from work about 5:50 p.m. on Nov. 8 when the unidentified suspect knocked into her on Seventh Ave. near W. 39th St. in the Garment District, police said.
She recalled seeing the man beforehand angrily muttering to himself as he walked downtown on Seventh Ave., which was more crowded than usual with the holiday season just beginning to kick off.
“This person was obviously very, very angry that there were so many people in his way. He had a lot of anger,” she said of her attacker.
“He was yelling, ‘Get out of the way, get out of the way, you’re in my way!’ ”
It happened “in a flash.”
“He just slammed into me, and he was huge — he weighed like three times what I weigh,” the woman said. “Slammed into me and then, the next thing I knew, he literally picked me up and threw me to the ground like I was a piece of trash.”
She recalled the impact of the fall breaking pens and pencils in her bag “in half” and sending her glasses flying off her face.
“I couldn’t see him because my glasses were on the ground,” she said, noting that horrified passersby then retrieved her glasses and helped her get up.
The fall fractured her elbow. She was still icing it Saturday. “It still hurts, but it’s so much better than it was,” she said.
“It was one moment of this man’s anger and he plunged me into months of pain. This is not fair.”
The woman said she did not believe she was attacked because of her age, as she doesn’t “present as an elderly person.”
“I don’t think of myself as vulnerable, and I don’t look fearful,” said the woman, an avid swing dancer who regularly walks around the city.
“I was extremely relieved that my legs were OK because I dance a lot. My legs felt OK — I could walk,” she said. “I’m extremely lucky on a lot of counts.”
She was surprised she wasn’t safe on a busy street in Midtown.
“It was all lit up. It seemed very safe. I did not expect it. I’m still processing that it happened there,” she said.
The suspect ran off and remains at large.
Police recovered surveillance footage of the man hanging out on the street before the Nov. 8 attack.
He’s described as Black, in his 30s with a medium build. At the time of the incident he wore a burgundy hat, a light-colored jacket, black sneakers and blue jeans low over his hips.
In a similar attack in Queens, about 7:05 p.m. on Friday a man came up an 85-year-old woman from behind, shoved her to the ground and took off with her purse, cops said.
The woman, who used a walker, was accosted in a parking garage on 35th Ave. near 74th St. in Jackson Heights, said police. The victim was treated at the scene for minor injuries, cops said.
The suspect ran off toward the nearby 74th St.-Roosevelt Ave. subway station. He’s described as Black, about 5-feet-8, with a heavy build and a mustache, and wearing a black baseball hat with a “White Sox” logo, a light-colored face mask, a black winter jacket with yellow trim and black pants and shoes.
Anyone with information regarding either incident can call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
