Punched and cops did zip Nixed chasing man, filing report: vic
A West Village woman said a group of police officers “did nothing” after she was suckerpunched in the face last week.
Bernadette Dono, 53, was walking with her dog along 14th St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves. last Wednesday about 8:40 p.m. when, she said, she was knocked to the ground by a stranger.
“I was walking my dog like I do every night, and out of nowhere I saw this big fist coming at me and I got punched in the face,” Dono told the Daily News. “I heard a big crack and I fell down.”
Dono said more than a dozen bystanders witnessed the assault, and several called the police after she was punched.
But when a group of five cops arrived at the scene, Dono said they were dismissive and unhelpful. Several witnesses told the officers that the assailant, described as a shirtless black man wearing red pants, had run around the corner and remained nearby — but the officers didn’t go after him.
“The cops just seemed uninterested,” said Dono. “They seemed annoyed with us. They all had their hands on their hips and didn’t do anything about it … They were unbelievably rude, really just ignorant.”
Dono said the officers refused to file a police report because she declined to get into an ambulance. She was given the same response when she called the police precinct.
“I don’t understand how they didn’t report it,” she said. “I was bleeding a lot.”
Michael Mackay, who witnessed the assault, said a cop at the scene was “just a jackass that was confrontational.”
“I was shocked by how rude he was after she was just punched in the face,” Mackay said.
Dono said she’s been afraid to walk her dog, Pumpkin, since the attack.
“She’s pretty traumatized,” Dono said of Pumpkin. “The two days after it happened she didn’t want to go out. She just wanted to stay in.”
The attack came roughly 10 minutes after another woman was reportedly assaulted while walking down Greenwich Ave. near 14th St., a block away from where Dono was punched.
Police reports state that a woman was walking down the street when a stranger, described as a black male, randomly attacked her with a wooden frame. The woman suffered injuries to her neck and shoulder, and police took a report of the assault as she received medical attention.
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment as to why cops did not take any action or file a report following Dono’s attack.