NYC woman, 74, is sucker punched in the face after confronting three teens ‘who stole her purse’

A 74-year-old woman was punched in the face after confronting three teens who police say stole her purse following yet another week of violence in the city. 

Disturbing security footage shows as one of the suspects – all thought to be aged between 14 and 18-year-old –  knocks the victim to the floor in Manhattan last Thursday evening at 7pm. 

New York City has seen a troubling spike in crime and violence this year, and new data shows there were 242 shootings recorded last month. In August 2019 there were just 91 shootings recorded. 

In the clip, released by police hunting the alleged attackers, the woman attempts to get her purse back from the teenagers before one of them turns round, sucker punching her. The suspects fled the scene, leaving her purse behind, police said. 

Police said: ‘Although the victim sustained bruising and swelling to her face, and cuts and scrapes to her hands, she refused medical attention.’ 

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The victim, who was delivering food to a friend, said she has lived in the city since 1963. She told ABC7 she has never experience anything like this and wants the area ‘cleaned up’. 

Footage shows as the three teens, made up of a girl and two boys, pass the woman; one appears to grab her purse as they all continue walking. 

The woman then chases after the group before one boy turns back to punch her, knocking her to the ground.  

New York City saw a 4.1 per cent rise in robberies last month compared to August last year; assaults are also up 2 per cent year on year, figures show. 

Shootings in New York soared 166 percent last month compared to August 2019, and murder rose 47 percent, according to NYPD statistics released at the end of last month. 

On Sunday a 25-year-old man was shot in the head and killed in Queens, police said. The victim was found dead after his wife called cops. 

Police were also called to another shooting in the city over the weekend in which a man, 23, was wounded. He is expected to survive. 

Hours later another man, 40, was shot and left in a critical condition in Brooklyn; another was shot in the hand in a separate incident in the same borough an hour later, The New York Post reports.     

The NYPD has struggled to get a handle on the sharp increase in violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic.   

The number of shootings last month rose in all boroughs except Staten Island. The number of murders is also up citywide, increasing from 36 in August 2019 to 53 last month, marking a 47 percent rise. 

During a television interview last month, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said the new policy was necessary given the department’s limited resources.

‘We’re doing what we can with the resources we have and making sure that it’s all hands on deck,’ he said.  

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last week rebuked President Donald Trump over his threat to pull federal funding from ‘lawless’ U.S. cities, and issued a chilling warning that the president would need ‘an army’ to set foot in New York City. 

The comments came following Trump’s move on Wednesday to pull federal funding from New York City, Seattle, Washington DC, and Portland, Oregon, in a presidential memo saying ‘My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones.’  

Extra officers have been drafted to police stations in Brooklyn hotspots in anticipation of an increased demand for processing detainees ahead of Labor Day weekend, a source told the New York Post. 

‘If there’s violence, we’re going to make arrests,’ said Terence Monahan, chief of department for the NYPD.