Assault suspects sought

Victim beaten, shot with BB gun at motel, police say

Police said they are searching for two more suspects in a Saturday night assault that happened at a Catskill motel.

A guest at the Catskill Inn told police three men had entered his room and began beating him and shooting him with a BB gun, according to State Police.

The men knocked on the door, and a second person in the room, who is not a suspect, opened it for them before they allegedly started punching and shooting the victim, according to State Police spokesman Trooper Steven Nevel.

The victim was taken to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson with “minor, superficial injuries” such as welts, Nevel said.

The victim told police the three men scattered when they left his room, one of them driving off in a black Ford pickup truck.

State Police searching for the truck said they saw it enter a Cumberland Farms shop on Main Street in nearby Cairo. Troopers questioned the 40-year-old driver and arrested him after they found he had crack and a “metal knuckle knife,” a knife with brass knuckles on the handle, officers said.

The victim of the assault didn’t appear to be hit or stabbed with the weapon, Nevel said.

The victim knew the assailants by sight, but didn’t have an existing relationship with them, according to Nevel, who added the incident didn’t appear to be a robbery, since nothing was taken from the motel room.

The 40-year-old suspect, a resident of Greenville, was charged with burglary resulting in physical injury, fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, all felonies.

He was arraigned in Cairo Town Court, where his bail was set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond.

His next court date is set for Wednesday in Catskill.