A man who prosecutors said rushed toward a young woman outside her home on Long Island and threw a cup of acid in her face was charged with assault on Tuesday, five years after the attack.
The man, Terrell Campbell, a Brooklyn hip-hop artist, later used the attack “to try to further his rap career,” according to the Nassau County district attorney, Anne T. Donnelly.
Appearing in U.S. District Court on Tuesday morning, Mr. Campbell, 29, was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of noxious materials. He pleaded not guilty and is expected to return to court on Feb. 18. Mr. Campbell could face 25 years in prison if found guilty.
Ms. Donnelly said the woman, Nafiah Ikram, had endured a painful journey of recovery and lingering questions.
“Today, we were finally able to provide her with some answers,” Ms. Donnelly said in a statement. “Terrell Campbell thought he was home free, but he could not have been more wrong.”
According to prosecutors, Mr. Campbell attacked Ms. Ikram on the night of March 17, 2021, after she returned to her home in the town of Elmont after work. As Ms. Ikram walked toward her front door, Mr. Campbell suddenly appeared and threw a large cup of battery acid on her face. Ms. Ikram, who was 21 at the time, screamed as the acid scorched her skin and seared one of her contact lenses to her right eye.
Ms. Ikram was treated for second- and third-degree burns to her face, arms, eye and esophagus at Nassau University Medical Center, according to the district attorney’s office. She spent several weeks in the hospital and has lost sight in her right eye.
She has suffered infections, had multiple surgeries and receives treatment to breathe and eat normally, according to the district attorney’s office.
Ms. Ikram did not know Mr. Campbell, and the authorities did not provide a motive for the attack.
The police followed up on every tip and investigated every piece of evidence in order to find Ms. Ikram’s attacker, Ms. Donnelly said. Video evidence collected from the scene captured Mr. Campbell getting in a red Nissan Altima parked a block away and fleeing, prosecutors said. But at the time, officials were unable to match the vehicle to an owner.
“Late last year, new evidence came to light that jump-started our investigation and led to this arrest,” Ms. Donnelly said at a news conference on Tuesday.
As soon as officials identified Mr. Campbell, they located his address and found the Altima parked outside. Investigators then determined that minutes before the attack, Mr. Campbell had searched online for sulfuric acid remover and whether a person could recover from an acid burn.
The district attorney’s office later discovered that Mr. Campbell, a rapper who goes by the name “YungBasedPrince,” seemed to refer to the assault in one of his songs. In a music video for the track “Obsidian,” uploaded to YouTube in 2023, Mr. Campbell raps, “On the street in the night like a hit man assassin / try to run up and have your face burn in acid.” The lyrics “fit the narrative of the crime,” Ms. Donnelly said on Tuesday.
Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, said local officials and the police had promised Ms. Ikram and her family that they would never give up.
“We made a pledge time and time again that we would go and follow every lead in order to solve this crime and bring justice,” Mr. Blakeman said, standing next to Ms. Ikram and her parents.
Samantha Latson is a Times reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
The post Man Is Charged in 2021 Acid Attack Against Woman on Long Island appeared first on New York Times.
