Police are looking for two women who allegedly punched a 69-year-old employee in a Brooklyn laundromat, then bashed him in the head with a vase (and threw it at him) when he asked them to wear masks last month, authorities say.
The NYPD just released surveillance footage of the wild June 8 attack at Aqua Wash Laundromat on East 98th Street in Brownsville.
It shows the two unmasked women walking in the laundromat. Then it cuts ahead to a full-on attack, with the victim falling into laundry machines and writhing around on the floor in a pink comforter that had been thrown at him as the attackers flee.
At one point, the victim said he pulled out pepper spray and used it on one of the women. That's when the other reached for the vase, and used it as a weapon.
The victim, Eion Azore, was taken to a hospital with lacerations to his head. He later said he needed a dozen stitches to close the wounds. The women, meanwhile, ran out of the laundromat laughing as he was left there bloodied.
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Speaking to News 4 Thursday, Azore said the two women didn't even come inside to do laundry -- they just wanted to use the ATM. He happened to be on the overnight shift that day and told them they couldn't come in to use the ATM because they weren't wearing face masks. He went to stand between them and the ATM, which is what sparked the attack, according to Azore.
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"I tried to fathom it, but I really couldn't understand why," he said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo lifted New York's statewide indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people on New York's huge reopening day in mid-May in accordance with CDC guidelines, but he said individual businesses could choose to adopt stricter COVID protocol if they wanted. Masks are still required for unvaccinated people indoors, under both state and federal guidelines.
Anyone with information on the suspects seen in the above surveillance video is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
