Video shows a mallgoer hit from behind and knocked out cold by someone police say he didn’t know. Anjali Hemphill reports.
Police say they've arrested the man behind the jarring caught-on-camera attack that sent a man falling to the floor of a Brooklyn shopping center last weekend.
The victim was at the Kings Plaza Mall in Mill Basin around 6 p.m. Aug. 20 when the violent incident occurred. As the 36-year-old was standing, another man snuck up behind him and punched him in the side of the head.
He immediately fell to the floor, where he appeared to be knocked out cold. The suspect and another man who was with him turned and walked away right after, as onlookers nearby were shocked to see what had happened.
One woman walked over to move the victim's phone closer to him, as he lay face down on the ground, motionless. What appeared to be a security guard passed by, without even glancing over. The mall did not respond to a request for comment.
The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center.
Police said 21-year-old Jaheim David was arrested Saturday on assault charges in connection with the attack. Attorney information for the Brooklyn man was not immediately known.
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The incident followed after another equally shocking video of a man getting sucker punched outside of a Bronx restaurant.
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The 52-year-old victim in that incident, identified by his brother as Jesus Cortez, was in front of Fuego Tipico Restaurant on 188th Street in Fordham Heights around 10:45 p.m. the night of the incident, surveillance video showed. In jarring footage of the attack, Phu can be seen calmly walking up behind Cortez, arms folded low behind his back.
Phu, 55, then slugs him violently with his right arm, the right hook to the head immediately rendering Cortez unconscious on the ground. Phu stands over the motionless victim, looking down on him for a moment before walking back inside the restaurant. Police said there was no prior conversation or argument before the attack.
Days after the mall attack, a 74-year-old woman was knocked to the ground near Grand Central. Her attacker, also caught on video, is still in the wind.
