What you should know
- A Good Samaritan who took off his coat to put on a man sleeping on a downtown Manhattan sidewalk was viciously attacked for his efforts, knocked to the ground, beaten and robbed by the very man he was trying to help, police say.
- Video provided by a senior NYPD official shows the Good Samaritan, Sang Park, walking toward the stranger, who is sleeping on the sidewalk and hiding in the corner of a building on Fifth Avenue around 8:30 a.m. am on Wednesday, when it was still very cold.
- The video shows Park taking off his coat and captures him trying to place it on the man. That’s when the sleeping man jumps up, throws Park to the ground and grabs his wallet from his pocket. Park tries to retrieve his wallet but is punched in the face several times. The suspect then runs off.
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NEW YORK — A Good Samaritan who took off his coat to put on a man sleeping on a downtown Manhattan sidewalk was viciously attacked for his efforts, knocked to the ground, beaten and robbed by the very man he was trying to help, says police.
Video provided by a senior NYPD official shows the Good Samaritan, Sang Park, walking toward the stranger, who is sleeping on the sidewalk and hiding in the corner of a building on Fifth Avenue around 8:30 a.m. am on Wednesday, when it was still very cold.
“He’s very cold. He’s sleeping on the street,” Park said. “I take my jacket and put it on him.”
The video shows Park taking off his coat and captures him trying to place it on the man. That’s when the sleeping man jumps up, throws Park to the ground and grabs his wallet from his pocket. Park tries to retrieve his wallet but is punched in the face several times. The suspect then runs off.
A man driving by at the time, FengLiang Wu, stopped in the middle of the street to intervene.
“They wrestled with each other for a minute or two and then the criminal grabbed his money and ran away,” Wu said of the exchange.
He called 911 and police caught up with the man, identified as Xavier Israel, 25, of Ohio, a block away. Israel was arrested on charges including robbery, grand theft, assault, threats and criminal possession of stolen property.
The arresting officers found about $1,500 in cash stuffed in his pants. It was the second time in a week that Israel has been accused of targeting a Good Samaritan.
A woman on the Upper East Side offered him help on Jan. 8 and he allegedly punched her in the face, authorities say. Six days earlier, Israel reportedly attacked another person near Central Park. Those circumstances were not immediately clear.
Those two assault arrests this month mark Israel’s only history with New York City police, the NYPD said. It’s unclear if the Ohio man is homeless or simply away from home, the department added. He was arraigned in criminal court on Thursday.
Information about a possible attorney for him was not immediately available.
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