Caught on camera: Woman brutally attacked at Long Island gas station after asking driver to move up
EAST HILLS, N.Y. -- A brutal attack on a driver at a Long Island gas station has police searching for three suspects who, they say, were driving a rental van.
It started when one driver asked another to move up, and it was all caught on camera.
It starts out as a typical gas station encounter. We can't hear the initial exchange, but it appears a female driver asks another to move a U-Haul van so she can pull up to the pump. She then moves her car, gets out and approaches the van again.
What happened next shocked onlookers.
She's thrown to the ground at the East Hills Mobil station. As occupants of a U-Haul van pin down, punch and kick the woman, one appears to photograph the assault.
"When I went out, I saw three people on the side taking videos, and they were pounding on this woman, continuously beating her up ... They were demanding that she say 'please,'" gas station employee Ganesh Persaud said.
Police say as the 36-year-old victim was on the ground getting beaten, the female suspect ripped off her necklace.
Customers are appalled by the violent response to a routine ask.
"There is no respect anymore to other people. Everything is like violence ... First reaction is like violence instead of being nice and understanding what the other person wants. Right away, it's like anger," Roslyn resident Roni Shalom said.
"You don't know what nuts are out there and they're going to pull a gun on you or something," another person said.
Police say the suspects fled on the Long Island Expressway service road and released photos of the woman and two men -- one man in a large arm brace.
Workers say the van was parked at the pump for a good 15 minutes before the victim asked them to move. They were also seen at the station days ago using an ATM.
"I always tread lightly with people because you never know what people are going through ... but either way, that doesn't warrant the actions that happened," Deer Park resident Jamie Malone said.
The victim, bleeding from her injuries, declined medical attention.