A crazed Brooklynite randomly punched a French tourist in the head in Midtown Saturday morning, sending the victim careening head-first into a stone step, according to police sources and video of the assault — just days after he allegedly attacked an elderly man in the East Village.
Philippe Mary, 60, of Talence, France, was strolling past the Burger King on West 42nd Street between 8th and 9th avenues at about 9:30 a.m. when the alleged attacker — Norman Nelson, 49, of Brooklyn — crept up behind him and launched a left hook at the side of his head, surveillance video of the incident showed.
The impact sent Mary sprawling, and he appeared to slam his head on a step right near the restaurant’s entrance, the video showed.
Two other people — including one man who was walking alongside Mary — immediately went after the brute, and the three got into a bus-lane scuffle that ended when Nelson wandered away.
The tourist — who bounced to his feet after getting hit — then walked back over to the step and leaned over as his compatriots tried to help him, the video showed.
Cops later arrested Nelson, a recidivist offender with at least six prior arrests — and hit him with third-degree assault, aggravated harassment and other charges, according to sources and court records.
Meanwhile, Mary was brought to Bellevue Hospital so doctors could look at a laceration on his forehead and the bloody nose he’d suffered, sources told The Post.
Nelson is also facing charges for an unrelated incident on Aug. 6, when he allegedly hit an 81-year-old man in the head with a crate just before noon on East 14th Street, sources said.
The elderly victim, Peter Bardazzi of Gramercy Park, was brought to NYU Hospital for treatment.
Bardazzi, an artist, said he’d been running errands at the post office and Trader Joe’s when he was attacked that day near 14th Street’s intersection with Irving Place.
Seconds before, he’d noticed Nelson and another man fighting on the edge of the sidewalk, he said. The other man was using what looked like a car antenna as a weapon — and Nelson was holding the crate.
“It’s a typical New York tactic: You see something like this, you walk around it,” Bardazzi, a Brooklyn native, said Sunday. “But [Nelson] spotted me. He turned his head towards me, and started coming forward.
“I decided, ‘Peter, walk away from it. He looks crazy, and he’s approaching you,” Bardazzi continued.
“I turned around and started to walk away and crash! On my head. Evidently, he ran up to me, behind my back, and slammed me in the head.
“I went down, blood was coming out of my head. But I didn’t black out. And there was some decent human beings — like good Samaritans — who came by and got me ice and gave me first aid.”
But the horror show wasn’t over yet. Nelson allegedly returned five minutes later, the crate in hand, screaming, “Where is he?”
However, the bystanders formed a wall with their bodies to keep the maniac away, Bardazzi said.
Thankfully, his hospital scans were clear and he’s not suffering from any lingering injuries.
Still, the 81-year-old is unnerved by the random assault — which closely mirrors the French tourist’s plight.
“It changes your perception of the neighborhood,” Bardazzi said.
“It’s not going to stop us from enjoying life and doing what we want to do,” he continued. “But we have to take extra precautions.”
Nelson was charged with second-degree assault and third-degree assault with intent to cause physical injury for that attack.
A manager at the Burger King lamented on Sunday the state of the Midtown neighborhood, saying the attack was emblematic of problems he’d had with the area’s homeless.
“We always have problems with them — they’re violent,” said the manager, who declined to be named. “They’re the same ones that get high and then come and here … It’s very dangerous walking down this street.”
Most of Nelson’s other prior arrests have mostly been for fare evasion, police sources said.
Manhattan’s West Side has been the subject of scrutiny lately as unstable, strung-out weirdos have swamped the streets and menaced locals and tourists alike.
The situation has turned into a full-blown “humanitarian crisis” that’s left the thickly trafficked area in shambles, Councilman Eric Bottcher wrote in a recent letter to the mayor asking for aid.
“Our neighborhoods need help right now,” he said. “The status quo cannot be allowed to continue.”
