Homeless NYC serial attacker punches, robs Good Samaritan who gave him coat, shows video
A Good Samaritan who gave his coat to a homeless man got robbed and knocked to the ground in New York City. This incident happened on Wednesday, January 12, and it is the attacker's third assault in just two weeks, as per police records.
In the surveillance video, an unidentified man can be seen making an effort to gently place a jacket he was wearing on 25-year-old Israel, who had been lying on the sidewalk at 476 5th Avenue around 8 pm Instead of being grateful for the gesture, the homeless man gets up, pushes the 59-year-old man to the ground and takes the wallet of the victim.
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The 59-year-old man can be seen struggling to get his wallet back from the homeless man but fails and instead gets punched and thrown into the ground by the homeless man again, the video obtained by the New York Post shows.
After fleeing the scene, Israel was arrested shortly on West 41st Street and 5th Avenue. Authorities quoted witnesses as saying that Israel had stuffed his pants with cash. Officers recovered almost $1,500 from the homeless man and charged him with assault, robbery, and grand larceny, the Post reported.
The attack and robbery charges on Israel is the second such case in less than a week as he previously attacked another Good Samaritan on Saturday, January 8. He beat up a 49-year-old woman who tried to offer him help outside of East 81st Street. The victim was pushed to the ground by Israel during the attack and she even received a cut on her elbow in the fall.
The violent rap sheet of the homeless man named Israel shows that he assaulted two other people, a man and a woman at Central Park on January 2. He randomly punched the two 18-year-olds as they sat on a rock inside the park.
This incident is another embarrassment for the new DA Alvin Bragg as he spent most of his first month in office pushing soft-on-crime policies. Bragg has been criticized for a new policy to downgrade felony crimes such as burglary, armed robbery, and drug dealing. First-degree robbery in New York State carries a sentence of between five and 25 years in state prison but petit larceny carries a maximum sentence of just one year in jail with a $1,000 fine.
A former Manhattan DA called Bragg's policies "an affront to every law-abiding citizen." Violent criminals now have carte blanche to re-offend, knowing full well that they will never again sniff the inside of a jail cell," said the former DA Daniel Ollen.