A French tourist was viciously attacked by a Brooklyn man in Midtown on Saturday morning, just days after he allegedly assaulted an elderly man in the East Village. Surveillance footage shows 49-year-old Norman Nelson creeping up behind 60-year-old Philippe Mary as he strolled past a Burger King on West 42nd Street at around 9:30 am, before launching a left hook at the side of his head. The impact sent Mary sprawling and he appeared to hit his head against a step near the entrance to the restaurant.
Witnesses immediately sprang into action, with two people, including one man who was walking alongside Mary, confronting Nelson in a bus-lane scuffle that ended when he wandered away. The tourist managed to bounce back onto his feet before walking back over to the step and leaning over as his compatriots tried to help him.
Cops later arrested Nelson, a recidivist offender with at least six prior arrests, and hit him with charges including third-degree assault, aggravated harassment, and other unspecified counts. Mary was taken to Bellevue Hospital so doctors could examine the laceration on his forehead and the bloody nose he had sustained during the attack.
Nelson is also facing charges for an incident that occurred on August 6, when he allegedly hit an 81-year-old man in the head with a crate just before noon on East 14th Street. The elderly victim, Peter Bardazzi of Gramercy Park, was taken to NYU Hospital for treatment. Speaking about the attack, Bardazzi said he had been running errands at the post office and Trader Joe’s when he noticed Nelson and another man fighting on the edge of the sidewalk, with the other man wielding what looked like a car antenna as a weapon and Nelson holding the crate.
It’s a typical New York tactic: You see something like this, you walk around it,” Bardazzi said. But [Nelson] spotted me. He turned his head towards me, and started coming forward. I decided, ‘Peter, walk away from it. He looks crazy, and he’s approaching you.’” However, as he tried to leave the scene, Nelson allegedly ran up behind him and slammed a crate into his head, causing him to fall to the ground with blood pouring from his wound.
Minutes later, Nelson returned to the scene with the crate in hand, shouting “Where is he?” But bystanders formed a protective barrier around Bardazzi, keeping the maniac at bay. The elderly victim was fortunate that his hospital scans were clear and he has not suffered any lasting injuries, but the random assault has left him feeling uneasy about the neighborhood.
It changes your perception of the neighborhood,” Bardazzi said. It’s not going to stop us from enjoying life and doing what we want to do. But we have to take extra precautions.
A manager at the Burger King expressed concern over the state of the Midtown neighborhood, noting that the attack was emblematic of problems they’ve had with homeless people in the area. We always have problems with them — they’re violent,” he said. They’re the same ones that get high and then come here … It’s very dangerous walking down this street.
Most of Nelson’s other prior arrests have mostly been for fare evasion, police sources noted. The recent attack has added to the growing concern about the unstable homeless population in Manhattan’s West Side, which has become a “humanitarian crisis” that has left the area in shambles, according to Councilman Eric Bottcher.
In a letter to the mayor requesting aid for the neighborhood, Bottcher wrote, “Our neighborhoods need help right now. The status quo cannot be allowed to continue.
