Video shows man sucker-punching elderly woman on Upper West Side
NEW YORK — Surveillance video shows a man sucker-punching an elderly woman on the Upper West Side, knocking her out cold. That suspect is still on the run.
It happened around 7 p.m. Friday as Geula Freeman, 81, was taking her son's dog out for a walk on West 66th Street near Amsterdam.
Video shows a man in a black t-shirt walk by Freeman, but then he turns around, walks back up the sidewalk to where Freeman is standing with the dog and slams his fist into Freeman's face. The force of the punch knocked Freeman into the side of a building before she collapsed on the sidewalk. As a passerby turns around and walks over to check on Freeman, the suspect is seen flagging down a doorman and apparently asking him to call an ambulance.
"It shows no remorse, sick person," a neighbor named Scott said.
The incident was captured on Scott's surveillance cameras.
"Sad. I felt really bad for her, she's such a sweet woman," he said.
Some neighbors say there's a sense of security lost as they watch their backs and surroundings.
"It's kinda scary. I have two girls, two teenage girls. Obviously I live right here, so they come in and out often," Scott said.
Elderly woman suffers memory loss, broken nose in random assault on NYC's Upper West Side
"A random act of craziness. It was not against me, personally. It was I happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Freeman said.
Freeman said the attack left her with bruises, a broken nose and memory loss.
"My face was throbbing, and I had a very bad headache ... I have total amnesia, total, a hundred percent, not even a little bit," she said.
Even with her injuries, Freeman says she has a lot to be thankful for.
"I'm being given a second lease on life because they explained to me that it was really very, very, very dangerous what had happened. I could've died," she said.
NYPD crime stats show there have been 86 felony assaults in the 20th Precinct this year compared to 80 felony assaults at the same time last year – a nearly 8% increase.
Just hours before Freeman was attacked, police say a 77-year-old woman was also attacked nearby on West 72nd Street between Columbus Ave. and Central Park West. She was punched in the left eye and suffered minor injuries.
The suspect in that attack is also still at large. Anyone with information about either case is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish, or submit a tip on their website.