Family: Woman Was Brutally Attacked By Teenage Girls In Brownsville, Brooklyn Park
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A mother from Brownsville, Brooklyn was afraid to leave her home days after being attacked by a group of teenagers in a local park.
The family of the woman, Hafina Akter, spoke to CBS2's Meg Baker about the terrifying ordeal.
"We come from another country here for the freedom, right?" said Akter's daughter, Rubaiya Sarmin.
But now, Sarmin said her family feels trapped inside their Brownsville apartment – scared of the neighborhood.
"My mom – she's an innocent person. She just went to walk," Sarmin said.
Akter came to the Carter G. Woodson Children's Park Sunday night, to walk a track and get some exercise. She thought she would be safe because two other family members were sitting in the park.
After entering the park at Christopher and Sutter avenues, Akter and her daughter described walking around the track.
"She walked around again, and the girl just come with the tree branch, and she hit my mom," Sarmin said.
Around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Akter said a group of teenage girls ages 13 to 15 yelled something at her.
"She understood that they say 'Hit badly in the head;' after that, she said, 'No,'" Sarmin said.
Akter continued to walk the track, and that was when she said one of the girls ran up and hit her in the head with a tree branch.
"They were skinny, and the girls had black hoodies," Sarmin said.
Akter suffered a gash above her eyebrow and a swollen face. She was taken to Kings County Hospital Center and received stitches for her wounds.
"She still has a lot of pain in the eyes," Sarmin said.
Family members said they usually do not go out at night, but Akter thought she was safe with relatives.
"Around here – the neighborhood – it is not good to be alone," Sarmin said.
Sarmin said this was not the first aggressive incident toward her family. She said her grandmother was taunted and cornered in the park a few weeks ago.
Police said they were looking for the suspects late Tuesday.
