‘Let’s get him!’
Qns. retiree, 79, battered by teen pack
A crew of teen ruffians roughhousing outside a Queens library pummeled an elderly man who asked them to move aside, police said yesterday.
The young miscreants pounced on 79-year-old Joseph Bonaventure in front of the Cambria Heights branch of the Queens Public Library on Linden Blvd. at 11:15 a.m. on Oct. 10., cops said.
One of them allegedly screamed “let’s get him!,” chased the retiree a block and jumped him. Part of the disturbing attack was caught on a cell phone video, which police released on Tuesday.
Arrested Monday and charged in the attack were Nyziere Lodge, 18, of Queens, and a 15-year-old whose name was not released. Both were hit with gang assault.
Lodge was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court and ordered held on $20,000 bail.
“They just started beating me up. I didn’t have a chance,” Bonaventure told the Daily News. “I’m 79 years old and I was beaten up. I have six broken ribs and a broken hip. Someone else called 911 for me.”
The teen terrors scattered when they noticed a crowd forming.
“There were five kids,” Bonaventure explained. “Three of them were really involved. One was blocking my way and two were beating me up on the side.”
“I am in a lot of pain. I had to get surgery. After everything, however I feel, it’s not going to change anything for me. I’m the victim of a crime,” Bonaventure said. “Now I’m in rehab. Being angry is not going to change anything for me. I really have to keep my composure so I can heal. That’s what I really need. I’m healing but they said I may be in rehab for two months, maybe more.”
“We’re lucky that they didn’t damage his head,” Bonaventure’s older sister, Marie-Ange Mignott, said. “They didn’t rob him because when we came to the hospital the next day he had his wallet, he had his phone, he had everything ... It was just a fun game for them.”
Bonaventure, a Haitiborn retired information systems manager, has lived in Queens for 50 years and never dealt with anything like this.
“I hope they [the teens] change their mind,” he said. “I’m 79 years old. I’m on my way out. But this will be a blemish on their records for the rest of their life. I hope they change.”