A 98-year-old man was repeatedly punched and beaten with a broomstick by a woman during a brazen daylight attack on a Brooklyn street, police said Friday.
Cops have released a video of the woman in the hopes someone recognizes her. The attack comes as the NYPD investigates a troubling string of chilling assaults against older New Yorkers.
The senior just entered a building on Maple St. near Rogers Ave. in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens just before 4 p.m. Thursday when he got into an argument with a woman stuffing flyers into residential mailboxes, police said.
As they yelled at each other, the woman punched the elderly man in the back of the head, then beat the senior with a broomstick and a metal chair, cops said.
She then ran east on Maple St., cops said. The woman was last seen wearing a dark blue jacket, grey sweatpants, and was sporting a backpack.
The senior suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
It was not immediately disclosed what the two were arguing about when the attack took place. The victim, a police source said, turned down an offer to canvass the area with local cops to find the woman.
Cops recovered doorbell camera footage of the woman stuffing fliers in mailboxes before the attack. Detectives released the footage on Friday, hoping someone recognizes her.
On Monday outside of Union Square Park, cops arrested 29-year-old Paris Valentine, who was accused of shoving an 85-year-old woman face first into the ground in an unprovoked attack.
The senior suffered a serious brain injury and was put into an induced coma after surgery. Her family says even if she survives, she may never fully recover .
A day earlier in Brooklyn, an 83-year-old woman was slashed in the neck on her way to church after politely greeting a homeless man who attacked her without warning.
Betty Ellerbe was waiting for an Uber about 11:25 a.m. Sunday when her attacker rounded the corner of her Brownsville apartment building located near Glenmore and Christopher Aves.
“He’s always out there walking around and talking to himself,” Ellerbe told The News in an exclusive interview from her bedside at Brookdale Hospital. “He came around the corner and I said, ‘Hello.’”
Just last month, a homeless man who had just been released from Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward the same day fatally shoved 76-year-old retired kindergarten teacher Ross Falzone down a flight of stairs at a Chelsea subway station in a random attack. Cops nabbed suspect Rhamell Burke, 32, the next day.
And about 11:30 a.m. March 8, 83-year-old Air Force veteran Richard Williams was waiting on the downtown platform for the F and Q trains at the Lexington Ave.-63rd St. station when he was shoved onto the tracks. Moments before, the assailant had pushed a 30-year-old man standing next to Williams onto the tracks as well without saying a word, cops said. Williams died of his injuries less than two weeks later.
Back in February, just two blocks from where Monday’s victim was attacked, an 88-year-old woman was shoved to the ground and robbed of her cane, cops said. The woman was shoved onto the pavement outside the Target store on Union Square East at E. 14th St.
Anyone with information regarding the suspect in Thursday’s attack is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.