A 68-year-old man was shoved to the ground and punched in the face during an early evening attack in Midtown on Monday, and police are now trying to track down the stranger who did it.
The assault happened around 6:05 p.m. near West 47th Street and Fifth Avenue, according to police. Investigators say the assailant walked up to the man, knocked him down, hit him in the face, then took off running north on Fifth Avenue. The attacker has not been identified, and NYPD Crime Stoppers is asking New Yorkers to help fill in the blanks.
NYPD Crime Stoppers has put out a wanted alert on Facebook asking anyone who saw the assault or its aftermath to speak up. The post includes contact details for anonymous tips and urges people in the area to review any surveillance footage that might have caught the suspect.
What the post says
The alert states that the suspect "approached and yelled at the victim, pushed him to the ground and punched him in the face," according to NYPD Crime Stoppers's Facebook post. The attacker then fled northbound on Fifth Avenue and has not been located. Detectives from the Midtown North Precinct are asking anyone with eyewitness information or security video from the area to contact them.
How to help the investigation
Anyone with information is urged to call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS or, for Spanish speakers, 1-888-57-PISTA. Tips can also be submitted online at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, per the NYPD Crime Stoppers program. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward if their information leads to an arrest.
Broader context
The case lands in the middle of a troubling streak of high-profile assaults on older New Yorkers this year, including a March incident in which an elderly man who was shoved onto subway tracks later died, as reported by AP. Local reporting and NYPD analysis have pointed to increases in assaults against seniors in recent months, raising concerns among advocates and city officials, per Gothamist.
Anyone with video or tips can also message the NYPD on X at @NYPDTips. Police say the Midtown North Precinct is handling the investigation.
