The homeless career criminal accused of randomly assaulting an NYU student on her way to class committed an eerily similar attack just days earlier in Manhattan, cops said Wednesday.
James Rizzo, 45 – who has 16 prior busts on his record – allegedly shoved a 68-year-old woman as she walked on Fifth Avenue, near West 47th Street at, around 8:45 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, police said.
Rizzo is accused of striking the victim with his elbow – without warning – so violently that she fell to the ground, and suffered a small cut, according to cops.
The unhinged perp’s spree continued on Monday morning, when he allegedly came up behind 20-year-old Big Apple coed Amelia Lewis on Broadway near Astor Place, slapped her head and buttocks and pulled her hair in a shocking attack, police said.
He was charged Tuesday with assault in both incidents, facing additional raps of persistent sexual abuse and forcible touching in connection to the attack on Lewis.
“I just really want to emphasize how not OK this is,” Lewis said of the assault on X. “I’m honestly still in shock, but I’m more enraged that things like this are able to happen in this city, and we really need to do something about it because this is unacceptable.”
He was also slapped with another assault charge for allegedly slapping a 59-year-old woman in the face at random on Dec. 18, 2023 on Mercer Street near West 3rd Street, authorities said.
The suspect, who got out of prison in September, was tied to the crimes after cops “caught him in the act” burglarizing an apartment near Washington Square Park on Tuesday, police said.
Police connected Rizzo to four burglaries committed in the same building at Bleecker and Mercer streets, all from around 1 a.m. Tuesday, cops said.
Rizzo’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Wednesday.
