A tourist in her 70s was tripped to the ground in midtown Manhattan in an apparently unprovoked attack Friday afternoon, a senior police official with direct knowledge of the investigation tells News 4.
The 72-year-old woman was walking north, on the east side of the street, on Ninth Avenue between 35th and 36th streets when the suspect tripped her for no apparent reason, the senior police official said.
She fell to the pavement, breaking a tooth and suffering cuts to her chin. She also endured a swollen left lip and left eye, the official said, but is expected to be OK.
Charges a pending against a man with at least 10 prior arrests, including one for an alleged assault in January 2019, the senior police official said.
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Friday's attack comes amid a spike in seemingly random and unprovoked assaults in the five boroughs in recent weeks, as the tourism industry just begins to more aggressively rebound post-pandemic.
One of the more high-profile recent cases, also in Manhattan, ended up turning deadly. A woman faces charges in that case.
