By Gus Saltonstall
Two people were attacked in separate Central Park incidents on Sunday evening and early Monday morning, a police spokesperson confirmed to West Side Rag.
Around 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, a 55-year-old man was walking near East 90th Street and East Drive within the park when he was struck in the back of the head by a rock, police said. The rock cut the man, who chased after his attacker, police said.
The pair ran toward 91st Street, where police were able to intercept the attacker and arrest him without further incident, NYPD said. According to the police, the attacker, a homeless man named Xavier Israel, was cuffed and charged with assault.
The New York Post reported that the victim was “Boardwalk Empire” star and Upper West Sider Michael Stuhlbarg, who is also known for roles in “A Serious Man,” “Call Me by Your Name” and “Men in Black 3.” Stuhlbarg refused medical attention at the scene, police said. The Post added that Israel has been arrested multiple times before, including for assaulting two people in Central Park in January.
Hours after Stuhlbarg was hit in the head with a rock, a 39-year-old woman was walking in Central Park near 64th Street and Center Drive when a man struck her in the back with a hammer, police said.
According to the police account, the attack happened just after midnight, and the assailant told the woman: “Nobody is going to find you here.” The man then fled on a moped in an unknown direction, police said.
The woman suffered minor injuries and refused medical attention at the scene, according to police, who said no arrest has been made.
The two attacks come days after two knifepoint robberies in Central Park and one week after a string of reported unprovoked attacks on women in Lower Manhattan. NYPD have not said any of the attacks are connected.
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But statistically we are safe. Tell it to the victims.
I’m very sorry about what the victims went through.
Shame on our politicians and local crime deniers.
Jen,
Unfortunately, most of the voters, those who actuallybother to vote, will keep voting for the incumbents who created the relatively recent bail policy. Over and over and over. These are smart people. Why are they voting this way?
I don’t like litmus tests. However, why don’t we require Brewer and Rosenthal to tell us how they stand on bail.
I’m sorry but i simply don’t believe the statistics, either in their completeness (do they measure all forms of crime?) or in their accuracy (do they measure all crimes in each category?), or in their reliability (are they actually representative of what’s actually happening?).
I don’t think they are way off, but ultimately they only measure reported crimes, which tend to be the most serious ones. So there’s been a groundswell of minor/quality of life crimes/downgrades that are simply unreported, but certainly felt.
My comment re the statistics was sarcastic.
One arrest and one more back through the swinging door of justice.
If Israel has been arrested multiple times why isn’t he still in the slammer??
Here’s a similar attack in Brooklyn. I can’t believe this woman’s attacker is not in jail while she is probably going to be dealing with after-effects of this attack for decades, but that’s our current justice system. Bullies get a slap on the wrist, victims try to recover from the trauma, and the left live in a fantasy world where a dangerous mental illness and serious drug abuse will be transformed into peaceful, law-abiding behavior through a little gentle intervention by social workers.
https://nypost.com/2024/03/29/us-news/suspect-accused-of-breaking-nyc-womans-jaw-in-sucker-punch-attack-has-history-of-mental-illness-rap-sheet-sources/amp/
Kudos to the police for catching the first attacker. Hopefully he will be put away for a while but I am not optimistic. Sentencing should be such that for each additional conviction, there is a longer term. This seems like basic common sense?
I am sorry the second person was attacked. I don’t mean to victim blame but being in the park late at night is not a good idea. It is unfortunate but such is life.
It is not blaming the victim. Simply stay out of the park after dark and especially after midnight. I’m very sorry for what happened to her of course.
Carl Heastie personally doesn’t believe in harsher sentences. His personal opinion matters more than your safety.
Alvin Bragg doesn’t want to enforce the existing laws. His personal preferences matter more than your safety.
A good reminder to us all that the park is not safe after dark!
I would prefer removing criminals over reducing my freedom to enjoy a park.
Parks never have been nor ever will be safe after dark. But yes, remove criminals as well.
“[Xavier] Israel has been arrested multiple times before, including for assaulting two people in Central Park in January.”
Is Israel back on the street or in the park now already?
There seems almost no point in writing anything more.
Kudos to Stuhlbarg for chasing his assailant. We all need to start fighting back.
Let’s fight back by voting in people who want to stop this, not make excuses for criminals.
We don’t live in a perfect utopia of safety. Use good old fashioned street smarts, and stay out of the park at night.
Law-abiding society is not utopia. Living behind the plexiglass is not common sense or “good old fashioned street smarts”
Shame on us for not voting for politicians who favor law and order. On the bright side, there are fewer mean tweets, and after all isn’t that what’s important?
Didn’t the current mayor run on law and order? Perhaps shouting ‘law and order’ isn’t the secret solution to stop all crimes?
I’d say safety is much more important than fewer “mean tweets”
Voters in 2020 disagreed with you.
Hopefully they learned their lesson.
WSR, please stop censoring this very simply reply.
Now is the time that the City and State legislatures absolutely have rethink how we care for the mentally ill. I have lived here all my life, lived through the horrors of Willowbrook. However, the untreated mentally ill/homeless are taking over. Yes they have rights, but so do the law abiding tax paying citizens of this City. This is no longer acceptable. Sorry but people who need treatment and medication and are not compliant, there needs to be repercussion’s. I am born and raised here and for the first time I feel unsafe in the streets, in the subway. I live around the corner from a residence where people with psych diagnosis live. They are cared for, there is an RN that gives them their medications. I speak to a number of the residents and they are functional, some work, they are monitored. Something has to change and please save me with the mentally ill have rights. Of course they have rights but not at our expense. So do I have rights.
The criminals are using good judgement–They know when to attack. You don’t go where it’s isolated or after dark-anywhere, especiallya park.
Adams was elected in an election in which 21% of the registered voters voted. In the Democratic primary that year, 2021, 25% of Democratic voters voted. Adams beat out Kathryn Garcia by 1% in the ranked choice voting.
Friends of mine voted for Adams thinking he’d make the city safer. I told them he is in the pocket of real estate developers. After two years + … city not safer, and it still looks bleak for affordable housing.
I was an independent and switched parties so I could vote for Adams in democratic primaries because I hoped he would
protect our city from crime. How silly of me.
People don’t understand how much their vote matters. I voted for Kathryn Garcia and if just a few more people had done so, we might be in a different position.