Man Charged After Woman Is Ambushed From Behind, Robbed In Ozone Park, Queens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A woman was ambushed from behind as she was attacked and robbed on a Queens street recently, and the alleged assailant was under arrest late Thursday.
As CBS2's Valerie Castro reported, police in the 106th Precinct were able to make an arrest in the case almost two weeks to the day after the attack with the help of surveillance cameras in the Ozone Park neighborhood where it happened.
Nearby homeowners were also able to help on the day of the attack.
Back on Aug. 16, a cringeworthy push from behind sent a woman face first to the ground. The attacker then pulled the handbag off her arm and ran away.
"The guy ran and then push her and my mom flew over," said the victim's daughter, who was still shaken Thursday by what happened and did not want to show her face.
She said her mother was taking a routine walk home from a bus stop when the man attacked.
"She feel horrible," the daughter said. "She's like, we've been living here so many years and this never happens."
The victim was left with several injuries after the brutal shove.
"She got 15 stitch inside, five stitch in here. And her tooth – one cracked, and three of her front tooth is loose," the daughter said.
It happened around 5:30 p.m. Aug. 16, on Huron Street.
"A very vicious, cowardice attack," said Anthony Waugh.
Waugh was in his backyard when he got a call from a neighbor's wife.
"She called me and said: 'Get out front! Frank's out front. A woman is bleeding on the floor,'" he said.
"When I came here, I saw her full of blood," said neighbor Frank DeBartolo. "I gave her paper towels, surrounded her, tried to make her as comfortable as possible."
Waugh checked the footage from surveillance cameras afterward.
"As soon as the police showed up, I tell them take a look at the video," he said.
Police sources said it was the surveillance video that helped investigators identify and arrest Devon Young, 39. Neighbors condemned the violence, but believe it could have happened anywhere.
"You're always going to have cowardice; predators, and they run away and they, you know, take money, and for a few seconds and a few hundred dollars, you know, this guy almost killed this woman," Waugh said.
Neighbors said they also started up a small collection to make up the money that was stolen from the woman.
Young was arrested Tuesday and was charged with one count of robbery, and was in custody at Rikers Island Thursday night.
