What to Know
- Police arrested a man they said is responsible for beating a young boy with a crutch during an unprovoked morning attack in Brooklyn.
- According to the NYPD, on the morning of Nov. 17, at around 7:38 a.m., a 12-year-old boy was walking in the area of Saint Paul's Place and Saint Paul's Court heading to the train station on Caton Avenue when a man approached him from behind and began hitting him with a crutch before fleeing.
- 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).
Police arrested a man they said is responsible for beating a young boy with a crutch during an unprovoked morning attack in Brooklyn.
According to the NYPD, a 12-year-old boy was walking in the area of Saint Paul's Place and Saint Paul's Court, in Prospect Park South, Flatbush, around 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 17. While he was in the crosswalk, heading to the train station on Caton Avenue, a man approached him from behind and began hitting him with a crutch before fleeing.
The boy sustained minor injuries to his head and was later taken to a local urgent care in stable condition, police said. He suffered a black eye as well as cuts to his head and arm. A good Samaritan stopped to help the boy, but the attacker got away.
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"He just went the other direction and I just ran home," the boy told NBC New York, adding that the man muttered something under his breath. "Wondering why he would attack me. Because I didn’t do anything to him. I don’t even know him."
After searching for the man for much of the day, police said that the suspect, Jamal McIlwain, was arested later Wednesday. The 28-year-old Brooklyn man faces two counts of assault, acting in a manner injurious to a child and menacing. Attorney information for McIlwain was not immediately available.
Surveillance video and photos depicting the individual were taken from the incident (above) showing the man running down the Flatbush sidewalk before crossing the street and allegedly attacking the child, beating him over the head with the crutch.
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Police said the incident was random and unprovoked -- which for some living in the area is even more unsettling. The victim is Asian, but at this point police don’t know if that was a motivating factor for the suspect.
The boy has since gone back to school, but has been walking with other people.
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).
