An Israeli tourist and her New Yorker pal were attacked by two teens at knifepoint at a Brooklyn subway station early Friday, police said.
The two women were at the elevated Avenue I station near McDonald Avenue in Midwood, when a female attacker, her head swathed in a white cloth, grabbed one of them, Shelly Zwebner, 20, as the two pals left the platform.
The assailant shoved Zwebner down the stairs, video released by the NYPD shows.
A man then joined the attack, snatching Zwebner’s purse and punching her repeatedly as the female attacker yanked her hair.
The panicked victim shed her coat and pleaded with her assailant as the thief held out a hand and demanded her valuables, the video shows.
At one point, another straphanger walked by the mugging-in-progress but did not intervene.
The coldhearted crooks, who threatened both women with a blade and a Taser but didn’t use the weapons, kept up the brutal beating for nearly five minutes — then took off with the victims’ iPhones, cash and credit cards, police said.
The women were taken to Maimonides Hospital with cuts and bruises.
They had been headed to a rental apartment on Ocean Parkway near Avenue H, sources said.
The mother of one of the victims owns an apartment on the second floor of the building, the superintendent told The Post.
“They came about two weeks ago, her and her friend,” said Bekim Jashari, super for Zwebner’s mother’s Ocean Parkway apartment.
“The family spends time going back and forth between Israel and here. You know, it’s a quiet neighborhood. I heard on the news what happened. I’m very surprised.”
The two women both flew to Israel on Friday, authorities said.
Zwebner’s mom, speaking from Israel via texts to the super, told The Post that when she viewed the video of the “brutal attack,” and was so worried she arranged for her daughter to fly home immediately with her also-rattled 21-year-old friend.
Investigators called the attack “a crime of opportunity” and do not believe the victims were specifically targeted, officials said.
Their assailants are believed to be between 16 and 19 years old, police said.
1 comment:
But DeBlasio says that crime is down. That can't be a lie This wasn't a robbery, it was just "income redistribution". Hopefully, other cameras in the station will have clearer pictures. We need patrols, and weapons. The police can't be everywhere. These marauders seek out the weak, just like Amalek.We need to turn on the heat. No crimes are solved without pressure. It's all politics.
Post a Comment