Police: Woman Slashed 72-Year-Old Man In Neck In West Village
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A homeless woman slashed a senior citizen in the throat with a pair of scissors Thursday in the West Village, coming just inches from his jugular vein, police sources said.
As CBS2's Valerie Castro reported, the slashing happened around 6 p.m. on the southwest corner of 14th Street and Seventh Avenue.
Mico Sopic, 72, told police a woman came up behind him and slashed the side of his neck. Sopic told CBS2's Valerie Castro he was with his friend Olivia when his attacker came out of nowhere. At first, he had no idea he'd been attacked.
"Everything was so fast, and I looked, and, 'Oh my God, I'm bleeding!'" he said.
Surveillance video from a nearby business shows the immediate aftermath and a struggle as bystanders try to restrain the woman.
"I was trying to back up, and some gentleman came and took her wrist and twisted it," Sopic said.
The victim ran into a corner deli for help after he was attacked, Castro reported.
Police sources told CBS2 that 30-year-old Alexis Smarts, who is homeless, was arrested at the scene for the attack and has been charged with assault and possession of a weapon.
A nearby coffee shop employee said there is a problem with the homeless and mentally ill in the area.
"Overall, it's a nice neighborhood, it's just like mostly these two corners on the side. You have homeless people, you have people that like should be in hospitals and everything. It's just like, a safe area but at night it's just hectic," Nicholas Rivera told Castro.
The victim was treated at a nearby hospital and received four stitches in his neck. The deli manager said he then returned to the store on Friday to thank him for his help.
The woman arrested was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center for a psychiatric evaluation, Castro reported.
Olivia thinks the woman was mentally ill.
"She was like crazy, dressed in black," she said.
Just Thursday, police Commissioner Bill Bratton vowed to crack down on such crimes by launching a "comprehensive effort to deal with the issue of homelessness on the streets and particularly the population that are emotionally disturbed," he said.
Liz Ryan, a West Village resident for more than 40 years, said the city has bigger problems to worry about.
"I think there are bigger issues like idiots with guns," she said. " ... They should crack down on people who do more harm than the occasional mentally ill person."
