Police are searching for a man they say attacked a food delivery worker with a hard plastic traffic looper cone in Hell's Kitchen last Thursday night.
Onder Unaler had just completed a food delivery shortly before 9 p.m. when an unknown man approached him from behind in front of a building on West 47th Street between Ninth Avenue and Tenth Avenue, according to the NYPD. The unknown assailant picked up a hard plastic traffic tube and smash the 47-year-old Unaler over the back of the head with it, unprovoked, police said.
"I just realized something really strong, hard hit my head because I lost the feeling of my body," Unaler told NBC New York. "The next thing I realized I was on the floor. I felt like my head, my skull was crushed."
Unaler was on his bike one second, and then the next he was out cold, bleeding on the concrete. The men were unknown to each other and no statements were made, police said.
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When Unaler came to, a Good Samaritan was by his side, who told him that the attacker took off running south on Ninth Avenue, laughing as he escaped.
Unaler, who was making deliveries trying to make ends meet after losing his job as a restaurant chef during the pandemic, sustained severe lacerations to the head and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, police said. He needed six stitches to close the wound, he said, but added that the psychological wound is much deeper. He said he's worried about leaving home with his attacker still on the streets.
"He was so young. The attacker was so young," Unaler said. he said he's also afraid someone else might be attacked just for the fun of it.
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Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
