3 Men Acquitted Of Attempted Murder In Greenwich Village Beating

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Three men were acquitted of the most serious charges Monday in the beating of a tourist from Massachusetts in Greenwich Village earlier this year.

In January, Kevin McCarron of Andover, Mass., suffered a fractured skull after a fight with a group of men from Brooklyn on trendy MacDougal Street. The attack was caught on amateur video.

In Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, Hatem Farsakh, 24; Mahmoud Habib, 30; and Sherif Rizk, 22, were acquitted of attempted murder. Farsakh was convicted of felony gang assault, attempted gang assault; and Farsakh and and Rizk were both convicted of second-degree assault, while Habib was acquitted altogether.

In the alleged attack, police said there were words, followed by fists. Then, the alleged assailants ran to a car and grabbed a bat and a tire iron.

Amateur video showed McCarron on the street being severely beaten. A passerby recorded video of the beating that appeared on YouTube, although the video was later taken down.

At trial, attorneys for the three defendants said the victim and the group he was with were looking to pick a fight, and sparked one by hurling anti-Arab slurs.

Farsakh and Rizk face a minimum of two years in prison, according to published reports.

Rizk's attorney said he would appeal the conviction, arguing that McCarron and his friends were the aggressors and any actions by Rizk were in self-defense, according to a New York Daily News report.

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