This is the shocking moment a gang of eight people started beating a delivery driver in the head with a baseball bat during an attack in Manhattan.
The 29-year-old victim, who has not been named, was approached by the group on Saint Nicholas Avenue, Fort George, in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan, New York, at around 9.15pm on Tuesday 1 March.
One of the suspects can we seen striking him on the head with a baseball bat, and another strikes him with a stick.
Luckily the victim was wearing a helmet which prevented him from serious head injury.
This comes as the latest crime figures have revealed New York City is reeling from a February crime wave that saw a nearly 60 percent spike in incidents over the last year.
The latest numbers show 9,138 incidents over the last month, as opposed to 5,759 during the same period in 2021.
Surveillance video shows the assault, which took place outside the 1365 Saint Nicholas Avenue, where the victim was delivering food.
The 29-year-old victim, who has not been named, was approached by the group on Saint Nicholas Avenue, Fort George, in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan, New York, at around 9.15pm on Tuesday 1 March (pictured is surveillance footage)
One of the suspects can we seen striking him on the head with a baseball bat, and another strikes him with a stick. Luckily the victim was wearing a helmet which prevented him from serious head injury (pictured, second left, one of the eight men holding the stick which he hit the delivery driver with)
He quickly ran into the lobby of the building after being hit twice to take refuge from the attackers.
As the group of eight walk in the same direction of the victim, out of shot of the footage, one returns to damage the victim’s bike with a baseball bat, knocking the package holding the food delivery on the back wheel.
The unidentified man of the group struck the bike several times before walking away.
Potential motives behind the attack are not clear, and it is not known if anything was taken from the victim, and if so, what remains missing.
The victim did not require any medical attention after the attack.
Police are currently investigating the case and are looking for all eight suspects involved in the assault.
As the group of eight walk in the same direction of the victim, out of shot of the footage, one returns to damage the victim’s bike with a baseball bat, knocking the package holding the food delivery on the back wheel (pictured)
NYPD are offering a reward of up to $3,500 for tips leading to the arrest of the eight men responsible.
Those with information are asked to either call NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline on 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), submit a tip via their website or DM the team on Twitter @NYPDTips.
In February, 32 murders were reported in New York City, which is three times more than the same month last year.
Multiple other categories of crime saw a shocking spike in numbers, including car theft which went up by nearly 105 percent, grand larceny soaring by 80 percent over the previous year, robberies up 56 percent, burglaries up by 44 percent and a 22 percent spike in assaults.
A string of high-profile incidents have taken the city by storm, including the vicious battering of a woman with a hammer by a homeless man in Queens.
Another case saw a man, who allegedly has a violent criminal history of 44 arrests, smearing feces on a woman in the Bronx. He was released without bail.
During the month of February, the NYPD reported a 58.7 percent increase in total crime. The latest figures showed 9,138 incidents as opposed to 5,759 in 2021 – with double-digit surges in nearly every major category
A 25-year-old woman called Chistina Yuna Lee was another victim of New York’s crime wave, after being followed to her apartment by a homeless man, Assamad Nash, 35, and stabbed to death.
The subway has been a hotspot for the crime spike after an alarming 73.3 percent increase was seen in underground incidents, with 182 in February alone.
Hate crimes have doubled, with anti-Asian attacks more than tripling, anti-Jewish complaints up by 54 percent compared to the same time last year – from 134 to 207 incidents.
Nearly 75 percent of New York City voters in a recent poll said that crime is a ‘very serious’ problem in the metropolis, which is the highest number since polling began in 1999.
The one small ray of light for New York is that shootings declined slightly in February, by 1.3 percent over the same period in 2021.
Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said in a statement: ‘The men and women of the New York City Police Department are proactively addressing the deep-rooted causes of criminal behavior.
‘The NYPD will never relent, and the department has made far too much progress over the decades – and invested far too much in the communities it serves – to fall back by any measure. New Yorkers deserve better.’
