By Gus Saltonstall
Hours before an 81-year-old woman was sucker punched on Friday, September 13, on the Upper West Side, a 77-year-old woman was also punched in the face, police said on Wednesday evening.
The 77-year-old woman was walking at about 2 p.m. on West 72nd Street between Columbus and Central Park West, when a man punched her in the left eye, police said. The attacker then fled on West 72nd Street toward Columbus Avenue, police added.
NYPD said that the woman sustained minor injuries but was not hospitalized. Police did not provide any reason for the attack.
NYPD sent out a photo of the suspect.
NYPD did not say it thought the two similar assaults on Friday were connected, and photos of the suspected attacker of the 81-year-old woman, which occurred at around 7 p.m. near West 66th Street, show a clearly different man.
There have not been arrests in either case, and the investigations remains ongoing, police said.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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This has to stop! Put the cops back walking on a beat, actually patrolling the neighborhood. These are hate crimes against elderly women.
Yes Yes Yes! We need police on foot, in the neighborhoods, visible, to any and all. That is the best deterrence to this kind of random attack.
I’ve lived on the UWS for over 40 years… Never seen cops walking the streets!?? Sometimes see them in parked cars.. Nada mass!
Joan the 20 Pct puts out about 8 Cops on a day tour so do you want 8 cops on 8 blocks by themselves or do you want 4 2 person posts? Keep in mind Joan just put all the cops on foot so if you call 911 it might take a while. The NYPD did away with walking a beat a long time ago, and for good reason.
While I likely wish a harsher punishment on this person than you do, ideally random, unprovoked, and unexpected assaults like this needn’t be solely escalated based on the age, gender, or race of the victim.
This is what happens when the DA spends limited resources on prosecuting brave New Yorkers like Daniel Penny.
Enough with the troll-y, cheap political attacks, Joe. Both liberals and conservatives (or whatever you are) can agree this is absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable and scary. It may be inconvenient to acknowledge, if you’re a grieving person, feeling left behind by social trends, technology, economics, what have you, but most people understand the nearly self-evident truth that criminal behavior is not caused by recent political trends and elected officials. Crime cannot simply be prevented by the presence of law enforcement, or by a preferred prosecutorial policy. (In fact the vast majority of violent crimes go unsolved, no matter who is in charge. That is a statistical fact.) These ills are rooted more deeply in our society. If we are going to make things better, we need to work together as a community. We need to stop with this divisiveness. When you accuse people on “the other team” of enabling/allowing random acts of violence against elderly women, that’s beyond absurd; it’s toxic.
“Crime cannot simply be prevented by the presence of law enforcement”
Yeah, ya just kinda rolled that in there. Uh,uh. Nope. Sorry. While law enforcement presence can’t reduce crime to zero, you’d have to show me a boatload of data to prove it is not a deterrent at all.
You’re statement doesn’t even pass the common sense test. Are there a lot of stories of people being mugged within 6 feet of an on duty uniformed officer? No. Criminals are lazy but generally not total idiots.
Just keepin’ ya honest. See vigilance works.
To be clear, what I am saying is that having police or hiring _more_ cops does not on its own prevent crime from happening. Crimes will happen. Of course, if you go to extreme/edge/absurd cases (e.g. no police or one million police officers) then this will have a big effect. There is some more or less “right” amount of police, where more does not help and where less may hurt. So, anyway, I did not mean to make the point you seem to be arguing against. I am certainly not advocating a “defund the police” policy. Clearly we need police. I am simply acknowledging a common sense fact. Crimes happen. And personally, I am tired of people trying to politicize these horrible events. Well meaning, intelligent people can disagree on policies. But accusing our elected officials and their supporters of being responsible for these acts or for excusing them or minimizing them, etc…that’s really just beyond the pale as far as I am concerned. We have to try to be better than that, even online.
Unless you plan to put a cop or more on every block it is absurd yes
Surely the DA can prosecute both people who assault elderly ladies and people who strangle homeless people to death?
The guy was on drugs and threatening to attack people in the subway car. I shudder to think what would have happened had the Marine not been there. Would you prefer that the Marine waited until the individual attacked and possibly killed someone before intervening? While the death is tragic, it is a better outcome than having a psychotic individual kill someone. I wonder what you’d do had you been in that subway car with your children or grandchildren?
If you’re on that subway car, you move to the next car, or you get off at the next stop and tell the police. You don’t murder someone because they are saying scary things. You move away. He was not brandishing a weapon, he didn’t lay his hands on anyone. What he did was wrong, but he didn’t deserve to die. Are we living on the same planet here? That man was someone’s child too. Thank goodness for you it wasn’t yours.
Not everyone can just move to the next car on a subway. Some people are scared to walk between cars,
Isn’t it prohibted by the sign above the door ? ( humor)
When there is an Emotionally Disturbed Person, people are sometimes hesitant to get up and move and draw attention to themselves.
I side with the Marine, it is easy to Monday Morning Quarterback and say he had no weapon and did not lay his hands on anyone now.
At the time when the decision to subdue was made, the information avaialble indicated a danger to the other riders.
The death is unfortunate, but was not intentional.
I’ve been in subway cars where disturbed individuals are yelling crazy things. It is very unpleasant and can be scary. Does not justify preemptively putting that man in a chokehold for 5+ minutes and strangling him to death. You are not allowed to kill people because you are scared.
This man confronted me and my family a couple of weekends ago. He pointed a glass bottle inches from my face and ended up throwing it at my wife and two kids (who were across the street). We called the police. I will call the Crime Stoppers number. I’ve since seen him sitting near Patsy’s on W 74th.
Jeez, glad you are okay that’s terrifying
So here’s my question. If I witnessed a similar attack and used my pepper spray to subdue the guy and then call the police, would I get in trouble for pepper spraying the guy given that I myself was not attacked? I feel that citizens who witness these attacks need to step up, but I wonder if we can get in trouble.
I’ve witnessed 2 incidents where the person who stepped in to help was arrested. The first was a doorman who ran out to the sidewalk with a baseball bat to help my friend who was being attacked by a homeless man. I do understand if the police pull up and see someone with a ‘weapon,’ that this could be a normal reaction.
I have no explanation for what happened in the 2nd incident. A shopper came out of a store and handed a homeless man some $$$. Within seconds the police came around the corner and the homeless man was cuffed, the shopper tried to explain that he’d give him the money, there was a lot of commotion, and he was also cuffed. As he was being put in the car he tried to hand me his shopping bag and asked me to go to the store and call his wife. It was all very surreal. I remember taking a step toward him and a stranger put his arm out to stop me and told me not to be a (expletive) idiot.
I have no idea what happened to the shopper, but the homeless man is back on his corner. I don’t know who the stranger was either but he clearly helped me that day. You just never know how things are going to go down, especially if someone else calls the police before you do.
Get this POS off the street permanently. I know the NYPD will find him. I am so mad this is happening. Can you imagine now we’re afraid to leave our homes. The patients are running the Asylum
what a lowlife you have to be to punch a 81-year old woman. but give it a few more days and we’ll catch both of these guys
What has made some of us so angry that we must punch innocent women in the head? This is what happens in child abuse. Something is going on.
This is a criminal act pure and simple.
Criminals thrive on the apathy and acceptance of this behavior.
OPOE:
And it’s the NYPO accepting this “behavior” by not sending officers out on foot patrol
This guy has been all over the neighborhood lately. I was saddened to see him eating out of the garbage boxes outside La Boite en Bois last week. That same week, he was behaving erratically enough to get the attention of passersby as he went through a garbage can at Broadway and ~75th. The guy who punched the 81-year-old woman who was walking a dog appeared to be talking to himself. Head on a swivel, obviously. Take all concerns to the 24th precinct: https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/bureaus/patrol/precincts/24th-precinct.page
I believe it’s the 20th Precinct that covers the neighborhood cited.
You’re absolutely right — thank you!
Both incidents were in the 20th Precinct. The confines are the north side of 59th to the south side of 86th Street for the 20th Precinct, and the north side of 86th Street to 110th Street for the 24th Precinct. Both river to CPW.
i have been taking photos of the guys who come down the sidewalks so fast now— last year they were reticent — but having absolutely no consequences for their actions — they now speed down the sidewalks and argue with you if you ask them to get off the sidewalk: Problem stems from the apps one orders food from— they need to be held liable for their actions, as well as not having no identification on the delivery guys. E-bikes.. not licensed. We had people from all over coming to 72 st to buy their pot .. Also, they are not from the neighborhood.! We been having the punching last summer and this year… As one city council person wrote on the UWS RAG why license the fast E-Bikes .. when there is no enforcement. I say follow the money !!! Citibike quickly had more E-Bikes after the announcement that E-Bikes were going to continue in the park until 2025! Nice move ! UWS is sheer chaos. No consequences & no regulation makes for anarchy mess!!!! Who is paying whom.. Sad sad West 72st a few weeks ago had a woman badly hit by a bike and the biker took off.. Why is there no resolution/ solutions for any regulation/ enforcement .. Bike Lobby … I can’t believe how they don’t seem to care about safety and want more bike pathways .. What about NYC which is a pedestrian city .. It makes absolutely no sense .. Vote everyone out of office .. I have never seen this wild west-free -for-all -conditions on the UWS
Not sure what e-bikes has to do with older women being punched -? In any event dream on if you think cops are going to be chasing down delivery guys – registered or not. The city agreed to throttle driven bikes and electric mopeds and all hell broke lose. However remember that there are many law abiding cyclists who do t deserve to be lumped in with tirades about “all cyclists”
Based on these comments it seems like finding him and arresting him should be a piece of cake. I can’t understand how he’s still roaming around—oh wait—just remembered our DA. Literally what is the solution here if we can’t lock him up swiftly
The residents of West 70th St. between Columbus and Broadway seem to have it figured out. There is an NYPD vehicle and at least one officer parked on the corner all the time.
Ha! I walk by that corner daily, the officers are nearly always looking down at their phones. A couple times I’ve overheard the youtube video they are watching. Would love to see some stats on what citations if any those officers have given out…
Isn’t anyone angry enough yet about the amount of mentally ill walking the streets? Haven’t we seen the insane amount of money being used for the mentally ill and the homeless with NO RESULTS? For God’s sake, we need all new leaders who know how to use money (OUR money) ethically and responsibly. Anyone in power now and the last 5 years have wasted our money for their own gains, corruption and shadiness. And it’s millions.
How much more proof do you need? Make noise, demand better and be open to even allowing someone without a big D next to their name to have a chance if they speak common sense and speak of CHANGE.
@Mary Michaels
This is for the migrant shelter at Stratford Arms. Has nothing to do with overall crime.
@Mary Michaels
The police presence there is for the nearby migrant shelter
When will the safety of white women matter to the police, city officials etc? Get these degenerates off our streets and out of our neighborhood! I’m scared all the time now. And if I complain, I’ll be called a “Karen.” Such hypocrisy. Reginald Denny is a hero in my eyes and if he’s prosecuted, other able bodied men will be hesitant about stepping in to help.
Maybe its time to also revisit the support that we pay for via the not for profits. The support that helps people live on their own? Maybe they are not getting what that need? Maybe they need more structure than being set off each day to rummage through trash and collect recycling? Is that a job that builds self esteem? Look where our tax dollars are going and if it is really helping?