Man Critically Injured In Reported Racially-Charged Incident In West Village
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man was reported in critical condition, after authorities and witnesses said he was punched, after reportedly hurling racial slurs at two restaurant customers in the West Village Friday.
As 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg reported, the young African-American couple was sitting at Benny's Burritos, on Greenwich Avenue just south of 14th Street, having a quiet dinner. Police said a drunken man, who was white, stumbled over and reportedly pelted the couple with racial slurs.
Man Critically Injured In Reported Racially-Charged Incident In West Village
As quoted by witnesses to the New York Daily News, the man said, "You n***ers are why I lost my job."
The man got clocked, his head bleeding from the fall, authorities said. Witnesses told the newspaper the man against whom he used the racial slurs slugged him.
Speaking to Sandberg, others were sympathetic to the couple who was reportedly subjected to the slurs.
"If it was up to me, I would have done the same exact thing," one man said, adding that he would have knocked the man out "point blank."
"That's not really a good thing to do – say racial slurs, you're going to get punched in the face," another man said.
The man who allegedly threw the punch – Douglas Reddish, 25, of Queens – was arrested a few blocks away on West 10th Street and charged with assault, police said. The man who reportedly hurled the slurs was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition with head trauma, according to the FDNY.
Some said cooler heads should have prevailed.
"You can't just hit anybody. No matter what, you can't just hit people," a man said, "even if they deserve it."
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