Search On For Assailants Who Beat 2 Sanitation Workers In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two city sanitation workers ended up bloodied and bruised this week after they were attacked while on the job in Brooklyn.
As CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported, the garbage was still sitting on the curb along Highland Place in Cypress Hills Thursday, one day after the sanitation workers were attacked while trying to do their job.
"One guy was beat in the mouth; got cut up, bruised on the head, and the other guy – he said it was like boxing," said witness Diana Yepez. "He said the guy just went down."
It happened around 5:40 p.m. Wednesday as the workers were picking up garbage outside a home on Highland Avenue. Police said two men jumped out of a white van, claiming the garbage truck cut them off.
Police said one suspect armed with brass knuckles pummeled a 53-year-old sanitation worker over the head, leaving him bruised with a huge gash on his ear.
A second suspect jumped a 39-year-old worker who was trying to break up the fight, police said.
Yepez, a teacher at St. Peter's Lutheran School on Highland Place, ran out to the street when she heard the commotion.
"The street is very narrow, and there's no way that cars can pass bvy," Yepez said, "and when they picked up the garbage, they parked their car on Ridgewood and they got ambushed."
The two suspects took off in their van. A witness was able to snap a picture of the van and its license plate, and police traced the van back to a female owner who lives in an apartment building in Hempstead, Long Island.
But the men were still at large late Thursday.
"If you have nerve enough to come out of a truck to take on sanitation workers, you better be ready," said Harry Nespoli, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 831, "because there's going to be a fight."
Nespoli said the injured employees were taken to the hospital and were recovering at home Thursday afternoon. He said New York's strongest are urged to avoid altercations, but in this case, his men did the right thing.
"If they continue coming at you and taking you on, then guess what – you've got to defend yourself. You're a person too. You want to go home to your family at the end of the day. You want to turn around," he said. "You don't want to be the person that's laying in the street saying, 'He should've defended himself.'"
"It was really sad, because these are people that service our community," added Yepez. "And to find that other people will come and do damage and hurt them is really sad."
At least one suspect was described as being between 40 and 50 years old.
The injured sanitation workers have a combined 30 years with the Department of Sanitation. They wanted to return to work on Thursday, but were still recovering at home.
