By Gus Saltonstall
A man allegedly attacked a 66-year-old woman biking in Central Park after the pair nearly collided on Thursday, police said.
The woman was riding a bicycle at about 2:20 p.m. in the bike lane within the park near West 96th Street and West Drive, when she almost bumped into a man who was walking on the roadway, police said. The man began to yell at the woman, before allegedly striking her in the head with a collapsible baton, NYPD added.
The impact caused the woman to fall off the bike and onto the ground.
The woman’s 29-year-old daughter, who was there, attempted to confront the man while recording a cellphone video of him quickly walking away from the scene, police said. He ended up fleeing the area in an unknown direction.
ABC7 reported that the man apparently said to the daughter, “she’s got to learn how to ride a bike,” before leaving.
The older woman was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in stable condition with a cut to her head, police said.
NYPD describe the suspect as a man in his 50s, with a medium build and black hair.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
Update, 10/6, 7:45 p.m. — At 1 p.m., Angelo Del Guercio, 59, was arrested and charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon, according to a police spokesperson. It was also reported by ABC7 that the woman who was assaulted, and her 29-year-old daughter who witnessed the incident, were both “tourists from England.” The Daily News reported that Del Guercio lives on the Upper West Side. According to Upper East Site, “Del Guercio pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Saturday morning with a judge setting bail at $20,000 bond, court records show. He remains in custody as of Saturday afternoon.”
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1- I hope the woman who was struck in the head with the baton makes a full and speedy recovery.
2- I hope the perpetrator who committed this act is apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
3- The man’s behavior is reprehensible.
4- The incident is not connected to the NYC mayor, district attorney, our local city council member or whichever political party New Yorkers typically vote for.
Actually it is. We live in a city where there are no consequences for acts like this. And that goes directly to the elected officials. Around here, all progressives
Oh look he’s been arrested and charged with assault. Sounds like a consequence to me.
I’m sure if he’s found, that would be considered assault (maybe with a deadly weapon), with serious penalties.
Absolutely perfect and level-headed response.
No it isn’t. It is a criminal response.
Love #4 Jerry. So true.
I feel like I have seen this man in the Morningside Heights area. Good thinking on the daughter’s part to get such a clear shot.
Arrested! His name is Angelo Del Guerico and he does live in the neighborhood. His twitter feed is, uh, something else.
Wow. That is some Twitter page. You are not joking. He will probably call the whole incident a sham witch hunt on his rights to do whatever he wants. The Communist DA is just out to get him.
It is so amazing to someone of my generation and tech awkwardness that the daughter was able in the chaos and worry about her Mom to grab such a clear portrait of this character * who carries a collapsible baton in the Park and feels free to use it against a civilian * . Best wishes to Mom, and the police tracking Mr. Baton, and kudos to the daughter – what a public service too. Whew.
Sort of ironic this happened just as we were told crime is down (as though thousands of serious and ‘unserious’ crimes a year are in anyway acceptable). Random attacks are a major issue and there is currently no penalty. Period.
When crime is down, crime still occurs. It’s not ironic, it’s logic.
But crime IS down. Numbers don’t lie. Next?
Not unless you fudge them so that the gullible feel safe.
You say numbers don’t lie but neither does that poor woman’s trip to the ER!
One is one too many.
Unfortunately one thing has nothing to do with the other. There will always be crime and its victims, unfortunately. Numbers are only indicative of how much.
Civility is down. Empathy is down. Meanness is up.
This.
I hope this guy is arrested soon and punished. We have to stop using violence as an excuse for any kind of interaction .
I worry that the threat of violent confrontations between pedestrians, cyclists, people on electric scooters and other motorized vehicles is inevitable. Pedestrians don’t pay attention; cyclists ride on paths where cycling is prohibited, and don’t stop at crosswalks or traffic lights; the smell of pot smoke is ubiquitous; and boom boxes are back. The park has become so chaotic and anything but the restful oasis I always hope it will be.. No one seems to care about rules or common courtesy.
Several days ago while lining up in Duane Reade we saw a young man pick up a large carton of Diet Pepsi and quickly exit ..I asked the cashier what happened to security?..Cameras ? The bells that used to blast off?..The cashier responded “there is nothing we can do””. I saw a similar ‘theft’ at Target..”Nothing we can do”…Key Foods on Amsterdam has taken down pictures of perpetuators of theft saying “these people aren’t allowed to shop here”…A few minutes later on a side street..I saw the young woman put down her Target bag, light up a cigarette and saunter away..WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? What is happening in NYC?..
I’m not sure why people think that shoplifting is some kind of a new thing… it’s been around forever – just ramped up during the pandemic. It’s just much more blatant now. When you have a President in charge for 4 years, who didn’t pay any taxes for years (why pay taxes? Why pay for items in stores?) and flaunts his avoidance of following any rules of civility….. boasts about how he games the system; and creates even more of a divide between the haves and have-nots….. sows division, is quick to suggest mowing down petty criminals etc. , here’s the trickle down effect. imho that’s what’s going on…..
Perhaps you think armed guards with their handguns and assault weapons displayed should be posted at every retail establishment, like the drug stores, bodegas, hardware stores, department stores, etc. ? Or have an armed guard checking IDs before you can enter a store? Or maybe just have gated exit doors where you have to show a receipt to get out of the store? Do y’all want to live like that? It’s a frustrating time here in NYC, and unless you want to live in a police state, or let everyone own a gun so we can have daily shootouts on the streets, or shootouts in CVS and Walgreen’s, we need to think of alternative ways to deal with this rash of crimes and attacks….. and where we’re going to find enough jail space to house all these accused criminals.
The industrial level shoplifting that we have now. It’s Trumps fault? Are you really saying that.
Whatever is called shoplifting now is a completely different thing. It is not grabbing a nail polish or a bag of chips. It is wheeling boxes and bags of merchandise. Hardly shoplifting, but let’s call it that.
But what does this have anything to do with Trump???
trump has made America a less civil nation. I don’t think that’s the cause of our organized shoplifting problem but from the twitter feed of the guy who committed THIS crime the link to this case is obvious.
He normalized violence and law breaking.
The incident is disturbing on so many levels.
The main thing of course is the actual attack on the woman with a baton.
But how come they almost collided? Was the woman respecting pedestrian right of way (this is not to justify the attack)?
Why was he carrying a baton? Did it become a necessity to protect yourself (I wouldn’t be surprised)? Or to attack?
Based on his comment about learning to ride a bike, and the fact that an elderly woman was riding with her daughter, I’d infer that she probably doesn’t ride much, didn’t have perfect control, and accidentally nearly bumped him. But honestly it doesn’t matter.
I know you’re saying “not to justify the attack,” but when you say that it’s disturbing on so many levels and then ask if she was respecting pedestrian right of way (in the bike lane), I kinda feel like you’re suggesting that she was some marauding Lance Armstrong type who maybe kinda deserved it.
But no one deserves to be assaulted by a stranger with a baton —and PARTICULARLY not an elderly woman riding with her daughter.
The fact that a man took out a baton and attacked an elderly woman for ALMOST hitting him isn’t, as you put it, “the main thing.” It’s the only thing. If you use a baton to attack an old woman, no one should care about your motivations. No one should care if she was rude to you. No one should care if you feel like you need to carry a weapon to feel safe. And no one should care that you think bicycles are a menace. You do not use a baton to attack elderly women. Period.
I agree with you on all points. Excellent post.
Cyclists are always hopping curbs, rushing through red lights knocking people down. Not to mention clogging up our streets. 99% odds she was in the wrong.
In general, I do agree with you. But, if you re-read the article, you’d note that it states that the bicyclist was in the bike lane and the assailant was walking in the roadway.
I don’t know what all this has to do with some awful cretin bopping an old lady over the head with a baton. Nobody has the right to do this, full stop end of story no excuses.
That does not justify the attack.
When did 66 years old become “elderly”??? Times 5 in a single response! Lol! Then you “infer”, from an angry assaulter’s remark, and because of her presumed generally aged infirm state, that she must be unaccustomed to riding and did not have proper control of her bicycle. Wow. I hope you’re not in any sort of hiring position. Nor have reproduced.
Amen! I was thinking the exact same things while reading that inane comment!
Thank you! I’m 72 & an avid & adept cyclist & I hardly think of myself as elderly!
Wow, Bob, chill. These are perfectly valid questions. I was wondering about similar aspects of the situation. Your lecture is out of line.
Well said Bob. The fact that a man took out a baton and attacked an elderly woman for ALMOST hitting him isn’t, as you put it, “the main thing.” It’s the only thing. If you use a baton to attack an old woman, no one should care about your motivations. No one should care if she was rude to you. No one should care if you feel like you need to carry a weapon to feel safe. And no one should care that you think bicycles are a menace. You do not use a baton to attack elderly women. Period.
Please don’t assume far fetched tales about what I was trying to say.
I just purchased pepper spray and a baton. Can’t be too careful with the crime on the UWS. Obviously use it in self defense only. But walking around with a baby and by myself in the evening coming home from work I don’t feel safe anymore. There’s masked teenagers who are committing crimes. Need a method of non lethal self defense. I hope everyone follows suit and purchases something to protect themselves.
Those teenagers very likely have a knife, and there’s a far from trivial probability they have a gun these day. I like being prepared as much as the next guy, but what are you carrying that’s worth exposing your baby or yourself to the extra risk of uncontained street fracas with those kinds of odds? I usually carry zero cash, one Chase card easy to cancel and the phone is the biggest thing I’d loathe losing. I realize it’ll take supreme coolness to not react with overwhelming violence of action to some punk trying to pull one over you, but it’s precisely in the non-adrenaline state of sitting behind a desk that the odds need to be carefully assessed.
What makes you think that total surrender will save you from getting hurt.
Nothing. What makes you think you stand a good chance against a volatile trigger happy teenager? It’s about to odds management, the level of escalation you can manage, and cost-benefit analysis.
Peter,
I agree with you and will gladly hand over my phone, wallet etc. I’m referring to situations where someone with a knife is coming towards me and I cant run. Better to have something rather than nothing.
Teenagers on 70th and broadway and in that vicinity are out of control, congregating in groups and up to no good. Where are the cops?! Last week i witnessed two individual’s rob someone on 73rd and Amsterdam. 80 degrees out, they had on sweatshirts and masks to conceal their identity (they don’t care about covid) right when school was getting out.
I would tend to believe SOME not all of these high schoolers from other boroughs are carrying knifes and weapons. Look at the 18yr old in brooklyn charged with murder for stabbing a community worker.
I really wish as a community of neighbors we do something. I’ve had enough hearing about slashings at the 72nd street station, guns going off. High schoolers running rampant committing crimes against hardworking tax paying citizens.
The UWS is not what is used to be and thats unfortunate. Walking down a street at night is dangerous.
Not a popular opinion, but if I had the ability to open or conceal carry I would today. If you asked me 5 years ago no way.
That’s exactly the kind of behavior of self-defense that we don’t need and just spawns more attacks.
Several other news outlets have reported that this was on a bike “path” not buke lane. This matters because pedestrians would have the right of way on a path. A pedestrian should not be in a bike lane except to cross it.
In all situations hitting the cyclist with a baton is wrong.
As an old (really old, not a relatively juvenile 66-year old) woman trying to cross the bike speedways in Central Park against a constant stream of cyclists who don’t respect pedestrians, let alone red lights, I have often been tempted to zap one with my LLBean trekking staff (oh, okay, my cane). I don’t because I am a law-abiding person with a pretty good level of anger management. Which Baton Man obviously does not have; he was out there looking for trouble. There is no excuse for what he did. Still, cyclists seem to think they own the Park roadways, and pedestrians be damned.
There’s a path at 96th Street for bikes to cross the park. I don’t know if this was the same path.
There is a crosstown MUP (mix use path) at 96th street. It doesn’t matter because felony assault with a weapon is felony assault. The man is also a coward because he picked a defenseless women on a bicycle.
Another day another story about dangerous bicycle related violence. It was fine when they followed the law but these days they run down anyone and everyone while NYPD sits on their hands.
A man hitting a biker with a baton is now ‘bicycle related violence’? The police are looking for the pedestrian, not the bicyclist, should give you a hint about who was in the wrong…
In an enormous swath between dangerous riders and ignorant pedestrians is the number of close calls that are not clearly the fault of either party. These happen constantly and, hopefully, the parties involved become a bit more cautious as a result.
did he say she hit him with the bike ? even though he was walking (or biking rhetorical question) in a bike lane? Any self defense law issues here? Or did he hit her because he was angry that she hit him?
There’s a lot of aggressive behavior in our social culture in recent years.
I’m an UWS and biked in t hose lanes 25 years ago, and UWS and CP there was a comraderie
We should stop looking at our devices and look at the humans around us on the street .
That’s the only way for us to support each other’s survival.
Old? He attacked an “old” woman of only 66? That ageist comment aside, if this collapsible baton was out of sight, can this man be charged with concealed carry?
Great job by Central Park Precinct Detectives.
To me the critical part of the story is that the woman was riding in the bike lane. I’m the first to pile on bikers who ride in no bike zones but it sounds like this woman was where she was supposed to be and that the attacker likely was not.
I’m not saying any situation warrants a baton attack but if the article is correct, there was no reason for even a scowl. Biker in the bike lane. Can’t get much more compliant than that.
The attacker sounds like a huge jerk at the very least and a mental case to boot. I hope they lock him up for a good long time.
Again, this is coming from a huge bike critic but in this case it sounds like the bike was completely in the right.
Actually, what is pertinent is that the assailant, Angelo Del Guerico, who walked around with a weapon just looking for a reason to use it, and then did so against a 66-year-old woman, has a Twitter feed that is quite literally an endless series of angry screeds and hashtags. The guy is pissed and he isn’t shy about hiding it in his long list of rage tweets. https://twitter.com/NYC_apt_Angel?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
I don’t think it’s hard to connect the dots from his endless aggrievement about the world he thinks is unfair and unjust to his need to remorselessly lash out at an innocent total stranger. From his feed, he sees everyone and everything is an unresolved threat.
He has gone down the rabbit hole of false news stories and there is a palpable anger within pretty much every one of his posts (except for the ones with a cute Mini Schnauzer in them, which is just a jolting juxtaposition in his feed). He is pissed off, and he wants people to know about it. It’s all the typical outrage about unpunished injustices, his belief that he knows truths that others don’t, and that the system must be corrupt because everything he’s angry about – validity optional – isn’t resulting in everyone he hates being arrested and thrown in jail. Yes, the ironies are myriad.
In this case his anger is particularly turned against President Biden, Democrats, the current Attorney General of the United States, and it runs the whole gamut of Right Wing talking points. Apparently, everyone he doesn’t like is a #communist. Also, he is certain that Justices Sotomayor and Jackson are #unqualified. Pretty sure he didn’t go to Yale and Harvard Law Schools, like they did, but he sure is certain of his legal opinions. This is not to say that Democrats don’t get angry or commit crimes. I’m just pointing out a boiling sense of rage, and a spiral that has this alleged assailant in its thrall.
His feed is a constant screed of fury about the 2020 elections, the legal treatment of Trump, President Biden’s mental fitness, Hunter Biden’s criminality, immigration, and, of course, Alvin Bragg. Lots and lots of angry comments about Alvin Bragg, whom I am certain he will be meeting very soon. I’m curious what his take will be on bail and leniency for alleged criminals when he comes before the arraignment judge.
Again, I’M NOT SAYING DEMOCRATS DON’T GET ANGRY OR COMMIT CRIMES, but the outrage machine that has 20% of this country whipped up, screaming bloody murder, seeing their own victimization everywhere, and acting like a cohort under siege, can’t have helped this guy’s impulse control.
Accurate analysis, very well-expressed, West Side Ragged.
It sounds as though you are right that del Guercio was awaiting a chance to use his baton on someone.
I know Democrats dont like it but this is America. His Twitter feed has no relevance here. He like everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
I am glad the man was arrested.
Anyone who’s come in here to say “oh, this is bicycle related violence” or “oh, the 66-year-old tourist must have been doing something wrong to provoke this” needs to just… Get. A. Grip. Leave the internet and don’t come back, delete your account.
The reporting is a little scant on details of exactly what happened, let’s not play special-victims-unit, comment section on that. More reporting may make it clear.
It’s all really moot anyway. It doesn’t matter what happened to precipitate the near-collision. It doesn’t matter who had right of way. If Del Guerico’s reaction to what was the bike-ped equivalent of a fender-bender *at worst* is to uncollapse a baton and smack a stranger atop the head with it, that is shocking, stupid, and the man has no place in civil society. None of the other details matter.
All that anti-cyclist rhetoric fuels incidents like this. Check yourselves
Thank you for update. Bike haters here were quick to victim blame – the man was walking in the bike lane – who knows what he was doing. I’ve had people, walk out I. Front of me – in any event no one deserves to be hit with a baton. A tourist on top of it.