Rash Of Attacks Against Elderly Continue, This Time Up In The Bronx

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- In the Bronx, police are hoping to crack a series of attacks on older men. Two victims have been stabbed and one has been killed.

The locations are not far from Yankee Stadium. Two incidents happened in the shadow of the Bronx courthouses, near the Concourse Village Apartments. In each instance, older men have been targeted, police told CBS 2's John Slattery on Friday.

It was just one of the latest in a series of assaults on the elderly. Just the other day the NYPD released video of an elderly woman getting slugged for her pocketbook. Back in late March, an elderly man was found handcuffed and dead inside his Queens home.

The latest attack up in the Bronx, the third since September, happened at around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday morning on Concourse Village West. Surveillance video captured an 82-year-old man on his daily trip to a deli being beaten and robbed behind Deolia Beauty Salon on 158th Street.

"He comes in 5:30 every day. Never misses a day," deli owner Nouman Saleh said.

But on Wednesday the man came in with his head bloodied. The owner got him a crate to sit on.  The victim wiped blood from his head as he waited 11 minutes for an ambulance. The elderly man lives in the Concourse Village apartments across the street.

"Every time he leaves, I always tell him be careful, and the same day he wound up being mugged and beat up," maintenance worker Michael Sanchez said.

Back in the winter a maintenance man at the sprawling apartment complex was stabbed and robbed of $25. The victim, who asked to remain anonymous, is now back at work. Last September, an elderly man was robbed and stabbed to death at 165th and Gerard.

"Patterns have not been determined as yet," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

As for the most recent victim, the deli owner said he'd love to catch who's responsible.

"I never see the man, such an animal person. He's not a man. He's an animal," Saleh said.

In an area where many elderly reside, it's a worry.

"I am concerned these things are taking place, because if it happens to one person, it could happen to me," one man said.

"When I come out I watch my back at all times," resident Elaine Jones added.

Lenin Roca told CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez he's worried about his aunt who owns the nearby salon.

"We have to definitely be careful, but the main thing is there has to be more lights up here," Roca said.

It's not known when latest victim will be able to return home. He remained hospitalized at Lincoln Hospital on Friday night, Sanchez reported.

Commissioner Kelly said he believes there will be arrests in at least one of the Bronx cases, and in an unrelated Brooklyn case targeting the elderly.

Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below ...