A pregnant woman was smashed in the head with a metal rod by a “disheveled lunatic” on 18th near 6th Avenue Tuesday afternoon, according to witnesses and police.
The victim, 35, a brunette in a fashionable leather jacket and slacks, fell to the ground shrieking in anguish, said Norman Ross, one of the witnesses.
Ross said the attacker looked dirty and was wearing a leather jerkin over a robe and high-top sneakers. It was obvious, he added, that the victim didn’t know the attacker.
“I’ll be honest, I was scared,” Ross, 61, said. “He was angry and pissed off and looking to smash people.”
When Norman Ross, an accomplished weightlifter and his friend Matthew Malin, 39, were walking to a diner to have dinner after seeing the movie Warfare when they saw warfare break out on New York city streets.
They tried to intervene and the lunatic menaced them.
“The guy he started threatening everybody, screaming ‘I’ll fuck you up! I’ll knock you out,’” Ross said.
While they were preoccupied with what Ross described as the “disheveled lunatic,” the victim climbed to her feet and fled to her apartment nearby.
The attacker kept ambling east on 18th Street, mumbling a mix of gibberish and more threats to the crowd.
Malin called police and Ross and his friend climbed into the police cruiser to go find him. They identified him a few blocks later.
“There he was,” Ross said sarcastically, “holding his four-foot metal bar calmly walking down the street.”
Officers arrested the suspect, Raquan El, 37, without incident, law enforcement sources said. He is charged with assault in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon, for the pipe that police said was stuffed with wood.
The suspect has prior arrests for criminal possession of a weapon, forcible touching, criminal trespassing and burglary, law enforcement sources said.
Ross said the pregnant victim went back to the 13th Precinct to identify him.
She was taken to Bellevue hospital with pain and swelling and was in stable condition, police said.
Despite deadlifting 350 pounds last week (617.75 pounds at his peak) and with a friend who is trained to fight, Ross said the encounter was unnerving.
“Oh hell yeah, we were scared,” Ross said. “My friend is a 6 foot 6 MMA fighter – he’s a big scary dude – but we’re not used to a crazy guy screaming and yelling with a metal pipe in our face.”
Ross said he is as New York as you can get. He was born in Lenox Hill Hospital but spent the rest of his life growing up in Canarsie. He said senseless incidents like this wouldn’t have happened when he was a kid..
“That’s what this city is becoming,” Ross said. “In the old days when the cops were all 6 foot 4 and Irish they would take this gentleman to a field somewhere and he may or may or not have ever returned.”
He said he understands crimes committed out of desperation.
“Robbery I understand you have your haves and your have-nots. It’s tough out there. I get it. But bashing a poor pregnant woman in the head. No way.”
Cops thanked Ross and Malin and gave them a ride to Westway Diner, their original destination before all hell broke loose. He had half a roast chicken, vegetable soup, salad and breadsticks.
“I ate more calories than I ordinarily eat because I was so freaked out by the whole experience,” he said.
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