A disturbing video captured the moment an 81-year-old woman was randomly punched in the head by a stranger on a New York City street while she was walking her dog.
The woman, identified only as Gloria, was outside at West 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue when she was struck shortly after 7 p.m. Friday.
Surveillance footage captured the twisted act of a man wearing black pants and shirt beating Gloria while her dog sniffed around the building.
He landed a powerful blow to the side of her head, knocking her against the nearby wall before she fell to the ground.
Onlookers rushed to help and Gloria was quickly taken to hospital, suffering from a concussion and numerous injuries.
“My neck was almost as fat as my face. My nose is broken, you can see the swelling,” Gloria said. FOX 5 NEW YORK.
A woman, identified only as Gloria, was walking her dog outside her Upper West Side apartment when she was attacked by a stranger.
He knocked Gloria down with a punch and walked away as she lay motionless on the ground.
“When he hit me, I hit my nose (against the wall) and then I fell down,” Gloria said.
At first, the attacker walked past Gloria, who had her back to him as she tended to her dog.
But he turned around and came back to her to inflict the merciless act of violence.
“That’s what’s scary, (it happened) in front of my building,” she said. “I didn’t want to watch the tape and maybe because I feel so lucky, because I could have had a knife.”
The woman was left with purple and yellow bruises on her face and upper body, but said she wants her attacker to get mental health help and not go to jail.
“He didn’t do it against me. He’s sick and he didn’t actually steal from me. He didn’t take anything. He just hit me for no apparent reason,” she said.
This incident is the latest in a growing number of attacks in the Big Apple.
The suspect (pictured), who was wearing black pants and a shirt, initially walked past Gloria.
The 81-year-old woman was covered in bruises from numerous injuries and suffered a concussion.
Felony assault crimes are up 4.8 percent so far this year and misdemeanors are up 9 percent, according to New York Police Department data.
Earlier this year, a number of women reported being beaten by strangers on the streets of the city.
In March, two men were charged in separate incidents that were the subject of recent TikTok videos in which the female victims said they had been randomly punched.
On March 27, police arrested Skiboky Stora, 40, a failed and marginal gubernatorial candidate who they say assaulted TikTok influencer Halley Kate Mcgookin near West 16th and Seventh Street on March 25.
The next day, police arrested Mallik Miah, a 30-year-old Brooklyn man accused of assaulting TikToker Mikayla Toninato in Greenwich Village on March 25.
The 27-year-old Parsons School of Design student was near Fifth Avenue and East 12th when she was struck around 2 p.m.
Toninato, like several other alleged victims, posted a video on the social media platform just after being punched.
Police have arrested a failed gubernatorial candidate who they say assaulted TikTok influencer Halley Kate Mcgookin (pictured) near West 16th Street and Seventh on March 25.
On March 17 at 11:48 a.m. at Kenmare and Mulberry streets, Olivia Brand, a 25-year-old TikToker, said she was punched by a man who initially apologized to her.
“He says ‘I’m sorry’ and punches me in the head,” she says in a video posted that same day. “What the hell is going on?”
A 36-year-old woman was punched in the back at 10:15 a.m. March 25 while walking at Rivington and Chrystie streets on the Lower East Side, police said.
The next day around noon, a 24-year-old woman was attacked by a man who struck her on the left side of her head with his elbow as she walked across Seventh Avenue near 39th Street, the New York Police Department confirmed.
That same day, a 24-year-old woman was struck in the head by a stranger in the Flatiron District, police said.
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