STATEN ISLAND, NY — As police continue to search for those responsible for the brutal attack that left a 62-year-old man’s teeth knocked out in July, video has surfaced showing the moments before the brutal beating that occurred near Howard Avenue and Clove Road in Sunnyside.
The video – which shows the victim attempting to escape the group by running across the street and narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic – was provided to Advance/SILive.com by a reader.
Attacker still at large
An NYPD spokesman said authorities were called to the 800 block of Howard Avenue around 7:20 p.m. on Monday, July 15.
Witnesses told Advance/SILive.com that the altercation began when the group of people began harassing the victim. The altercation then escalated from verbal to physical before Good Samaritans intervened to break up the commotion.
According to police, the perpetrators are still at large and the incident is being investigated.
The video
The two-minute surveillance video clip, provided to Advance/SILive.com, shows nine people following the unidentified victim, who was wearing a red shirt and khaki cargo shorts, down the street.
Two of the people in the footage can be seen appearing to reach out to the victim with their arms before the man flees across the street, pursued by eight of the people. The victim can be seen running down the street with his attackers in tow.
The man runs out of the camera’s view; eventually the group of people reappears and runs in the opposite direction.
The clip ends with emergency services arriving at the scene to transport the victim to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton.
Call to action
“His mouth is completely disfigured. He was taken by surprise and kicked all over his body,” a relative of the victim told Advance/SILive.com. He requested anonymity because the group of perpetrators is still at large. “He fell flat on his face and didn’t expect anyone to hit him.”
District President Vito Fossella said the incident was “unbearable.”
“He was just going about his business on a beautiful summer night, walking down the street and eventually got surrounded by a group of people,” Fossella said. “He ended up running across Clove Road – he could have been killed if he had been hit by a car.”
Fossella added: “The point is, it could have been anyone’s grandfather or grandmother just walking down the street, minding their own business, and they were attacked, and that is just unbearable.”
Anyone with information can call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. The public can also report tips to the Crime Stoppers Website or by texting tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and then typing TIP577.
