Shocking video captured the moment a Brooklyn school bus aide was sucker-punched by a serial attacker with multiple busts – knocking out her teeth and leaving her with a broken jaw that had to be wired shut.
Dulche Pichardo, 57, said she was commuting home from work at about 5 p.m. Tuesday when a stranger took a swing at her on the sidewalk of Grand Avenue near Dean Street in Crown Heights.
“He just punched me on the right side here, very strong,” Pichardo told PIX11, adding that the brute never said a word.
The disturbing surveillance footage shows her stumbling backward after the blow.
“I was surprised. I said, ‘What’s going on? Why did you hit me? Why did you do it?’ I didn’t do anything. No reason to hit me,” she said.
Pichardo said she lost three teeth, suffered facial fractures and a broken jaw, which has been wired shut, as well as nerve damage from the brutal assault.
She will have to drink food out of a straw for several weeks.
Her brother, who owns a nearby restaurant, and an employee chased down the suspect, who was identified by police as 33-year-old Franz Jeudy.
Jeudy was emotionless when confronted and denied hitting her, Yohan Flores told WABC.
Jeudy was charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor — meaning he’s not bail-eligible. He was released despite two previous arrests, including one in 2018, when he was charged with second-degree assault in the attack on a cop, police said. He also was charged with assault in 2019.
The Brooklyn man also was charged with harassment in the attack on Pichardo.
Pichardo said the terrifying experience has left her fearful.
“Every time I see a man, I cross,” she told WABC. “I’m not going to be close to nobody. I’m very afraid. I tell my son where I’m going, I want you to walk with me.”
She said she hopes the city will do more to make sure residents are safe just walking down a street.
“I don’t want this happening again. I want New York to do something about this. They have to stop this. It’s not fair,” Pichardo told PIX11.
Also on Tuesday, an unidentified male approached a 24-year-old woman in Flatiron and punched her in the head with a closed fist just before 1 p.m., police said.
He fled on foot and the victim refused medical attention.
The suspect was described as a roughly 35-year-old man with a dark complexion, about 5-foot-10, and weighing 180 pounds with a slim build.
He was last seen wearing a black jacket, black hooded sweatshirt, and white and orange sneakers, cops said.
The two attacks come on the heels of a series of other cases of women being randomly punched by strangers while walking in the Big Apple in broad daylight. (https://nypost.com/2024/03/26/us-news/tiktokkers-report-being-punched-by-strangers-in-nyc/)
Halley Kate, an influencer with 1.1 million followers on TikTok, posted a video Monday, saying she was randomly attacked and blacked out.
“You guys, I was literally just walking, and a man came up and punched me in the face,” Kate said through tears in a post.
On Wednesday, police said investigators arrested 40-year-old Skiroky Story, a criminal recidivist with an extensive criminal record, in connection with the assault on West 16th Street in Chelsea.
“Detectives were able to identify the man after he was previously arrested for similar attacks, only to be released back onto our streets. This incident will be his third arrest in the past six months,” the NYPD said.
Another woman, Mikayla Toninato, whose bio said she attends Greenwich Village’s Parsons School of Design, tagged Kate in a post later Monday and recounted a similar ordeal.
“I just got punched in the face, walking home,” the TikToker claimed. “I was literally like leaving class, I turned the corner and I was looking down and I was looking at my phone, and like texting, and then, out of nowhere, this man just came up and hit me in the face.”
She later said the attack happened at West 14th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
On March 17, another woman named Oliva Brand took to the platform to report a similar experience in a clip captured on Mulberry Street in Nolita.
“I literally got punched in the head on the sidewalk. He goes, ‘Sorry,’ and then punches me — in the head,” Brand said in the video. “Holy crap, what the hell just happened? Oh my God.”
It is unclear if the incidents are related.
On Feb. 8, a fourth young female TikToker, Jill Burke, also said she was attacked near Union Square and that the suspect was arrested and released on his own recognizance.
The shocking attacks appear similar to the “knockout game,” where young people encourage each other to randomly sucker-punch people.
