A group of robbers has been slashing and beating people in Greenwich Village this week, police say.
The group of five, made up of four men and one woman, brazenly attacked two men in the span of a half-hour on Wednesday morning in a neighborhood normally bustling after hours, according to police.
Around 12:30 a.m., they targeted a 55-year-old man on West 14th Street, near Sixth Avenue, police say. They punched and kicked the man repeatedly and cut him across the right side of his face. Police say they then stole $30 from him before taking off.
Surveillance video shows them approaching the 55-year-old before the attack. He appears to say something before he tries to take off his backpack and run. That’s when the group gangs up on him.
“They gooned the guy,” said Santos Guzman, a store manager. “They just came at him, kicking him, pushing him, stabbing him. The guy was on the floor for three minutes before anyone stopped to help him.”
About 25 minutes after the 55-year-old man was attacked, the group went after a 23-year-old man in front of a church on Seventh Avenue, according to police. They demanded the man’s belongings, and when he refused, they cut him on his hand and face before stealing his cell phone and $50, police said.
Both victims were taken to area hospitals in stable condition.
Local
“I worry about my safety,” Guzman said. “I worry about the safety of my employees here. I worry about my customers also coming in here.”
Police say everyone in the group is in their late teens or early 20s.
