Exclusive: Woman Brutally Attacked At Harlem Liquor Store Says Suspect Tried To Bite Her Eye Out: 'That's An Animal. That's Not A Person'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A woman buying a bottle of wine in Harlem was brutally attacked.
She says it happened after she turned down one man's offer to pay for her.
CBS2's Lisa Rozner spoke exclusively with the victim.
Surveillance video shows a group outside the liquor store as a woman walks in alone just before 6 p.m. Monday.
The 31-year-old mother says she was buying a bottle of wine after work when two men walked into the shop on West 128th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. She says a man in a red parka offered to pay.
"I politely declined, and I said no thank you, but thank you, I can pay for it myself. And I got ready to walk out. Before I walk out he basically said that he felt like I thought I was better than them," the woman told Rozner.
The men followed her out, she says asking what did she want to do about it.
"I just asked him, I said, 'you're seriously trying to fight me? I'm trying to go about my business,'" she said.
She says they chased her across the street, kicking her, and one man actually bit her forehead, leaving a deep wound. She says he tried to bite her eye out. Others kicked her.
"To bite me, and do that - maul me the way that he did - with me screaming, and saying I'm just trying to get my daughter. That - that's an animal. That's not a person," she said.
Witnesses told Rozner multiple people called 911. The woman was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals Harlem in stable condition.
During the attack, she says her iPhone fell on the ground, and she went to grab it...
"He pried the phone out my hand, and he said give me your phone b****," she said.
She said afterward, someone told her to run, because one of the men had done this to someone else before and could come back.
The woman, who has not been able to open one eye, says the suspects need to be caught immediately so other people going about their day don't fall prey.
Police say they are looking for the men involved.
Anyone with information about her attackers is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
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