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Rafaela Rivera: NYC mom takes down man who randomly punched her 4-yr-old son in the head

Rafaela Rivera, 42, was seen on surveillance video chasing the fiend, grabbing him from behind, and not letting go until police arrived at the scene

A Bronx woman, who tackled a man who punched her 4-year-old son unprovoked in Times Square, recounted how her "mama bear" instincts took over as soon as she heard the boy wailing in pain.

Rafaela Rivera, 42, was seen on surveillance video chasing the fiend, grabbing him from behind, and not letting go until law enforcement arrived at the scene. Speaking to the New York Post, the bagel factory worker recalled how a wholesome family trip went awry on Thursday, February 17, as she, her son Angel and daughter Carmen walked through Times Square.

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The family had reportedly taken a cab to Manhattan for a photo shoot for Angel, who is an aspiring model. Following the shoot, they went on to have a good time at the Crossroads of the World when Carmen, 17, said she spotted the suspect acting rather strangely before attacking her little brother. Rivera took off as soon as her daughter pointed to the assailant. “I went to grab him, ‘Hey you just hit my son.’ I grabbed him from the back and I gave him a big bear hug and then I fell to the ground with him. He was moving around,” Rivera told The Post. “He was trying to get away. I said I’m not going to let go, you are not going to get away, I’m going to let the cops get you for hitting my 4-year-old son,” she recalled.

Carmen said the suspect spat on her as he and her mother struggled. “At that point, I was really mad. I was hitting on him. That was nasty,” she said. Law enforcement responded to the scene and saw the mother still holding fast to the perp. “The cops said, ‘Let him go, let him go.’ I said, ‘He hit my son,’ and one said, ‘We got him, let him go.’ So I let him go and they had him on the ground,” Rivera said. “He didn’t say anything. He was mumbling. I think he wasn’t in the right state of mind.”

Authorities identified the suspect as 34-year-old Babacar Mbaye, a repeat offender with a whopping 51 arrests. They charged him with assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and resisting arrest. Angel sustained a few scratch marks near his eye. “He hit me here,” Angel said, pointing to his right eye. “It was hard on my head, I saw a whole bunch of colors. I was crying.” The four-year-old said he was “feeling good right now. I am strong. My eye doesn’t hurt.” Meanwhile, Rivera said she had bruised her arm and legs.

According to Mbaye's lawyer Thomas Kenniff, the suspect had three recent prior arrests for assault, including a February 3 charge for allegedly punching a woman in the head on the subway. He was reportedly released without bail on a desk appearance ticket for that incident. Furthermore, he was given supervised release for a January 20 charge for punching and kicking a woman in the stomach. He was subsequently released without bail after being arrested in August for kicking a woman.

Kenniff had initially contended in court his client had been dancing in Times Square "and inadvertently made contact with the child." Days later, however, he said that statement was based on a preliminary investigation. “Clearly this appears to be someone who is not in a sound mental state at the time of the incident,” he said on Saturday, February 19. Mbaye is currently being held on a $30,000 bail. 

Rivera wondered why Mbaye hadn't been jailed previously. “He should be in a place where he is institutionalized or he should be doing jail time. He hit a 4-year-old child. Who’s next?”, she told The Post. Meanwhile, Angel's father Federico said he was "very angry" about what happened. The family, who had been living in California and moved back to New York about two years ago, said it was "a different New York now." Federico said the "crime is out of this world" and "there is no police presence like it used to be."