New York City police are hunting for three suspects wanted in connection with the brutal robbing and punching of a 74-year-old woman in on...
New York City police are hunting for three suspects wanted in connection with the brutal robbing and punching of a 74-year-old woman in one of the latest random acts of violence in the city.
In the Thursday incident, which occurred in the East Village and was caught on surveillance footage, police said one member of a group of three suspects grabbed the woman’s purse.
When the woman responded, she was punched in the face and fell to the ground.
WARNING: The following video contains violent images that some viewers may find disturbing:
The suspect who had taken the purse then threw it to the ground and the three teens fled, according to police.
“Although the victim sustained bruising and swelling to her face and cuts and scrapes to her hands she refused medical attention,” the New York City Police Department said, WNYW-TV reported.
Police said the three suspects, two males and one female, were between 14 and 18 years of age.
Authorities were asking for the public’s help in identifying them.
The woman told WABC-TV she came to New York City in 1963 and never experienced anything like her attack.
She said she wants to see the East 14th Street area “cleaned up.”
However, assault and robbery are only two of the many crimes climbing in the city,
New police figures reveal that August saw 242 shootings in the city, a 166 percent increase from the 91 in August 2019, according to WABC.
New York City suffered a 47 percent increase in murder in August, two months after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to move full speed ahead with reallocating police department funding.
August’s murders meant that New York City has now experienced a 34 percent increase in murders for the year compared to the same point in 2019, with 291 murders this year versus 217 through August 2019.
Crime is sweeping streets that have fewer and fewer officers on patrol.
“We have calculated that approximately 2,000 to 3,000, maybe even 4,000 less officers are out on the streets for any given week,” Michael LiPetri, the NYPD’s chief of crime control strategies, told CBS News.
He said that curbs on overtime left key precincts with too few officers on the streets.
“That’s where the overtime was going last summer. The overtime was going to the most violent commands in New York City,” LiPetri said.
Residents have had enough.
“There is too much killing,” Brooklyn resident Avie Pope told CBS. “I’m tired of it. Every night there’s guns shooting.”
“Let’s stop the violence. We have grandchildren, children, daughters, sons and it’s just gonna get worse if something’s not done,” Flatbush resident Mitchell Rapp added.
De Blasio said given time, the problem will be resolved by Cure Violence groups he is relying upon instead of the police.
“We’ve seen stunning success in the past. We know it will take root here again. But everyone is still trying to come back from a massive disruption. We’re not going to see an overnight turnaround,” de Blasio said.
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