The Bronx Ink

Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the man who assaulted Jose Rodriguez (above) last Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Ted Regencia)

An 81-year-old Parkchester resident was knocked down and punched inside the front door of his apartment building Thursday afternoon by a young male assailant who tore off the senior’s jewelry and emptied his pockets of cash.

Police released security video footage from the building at 1555 Unionport Road that showed the attack lasted less than a minute. The elderly victim, Jose Rodriguez, sustained minor injuries, including multiple bruises.

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The footage shows Rodriguez, who was returning home at around 4 p.m., opening the door to his building, when a man wearing a towel draped over his head grabs him from behind.

The mugger then held Rodriguez in a chokehold and shoved him into the lobby, where he began hitting him in the face. Once Rodriguez fell to the floor, the teen tore the towel from his head and continued beating and kicking.

Rodriguez, who has dark bruises on his face from the attack, said he has lived in Parkchester for 35 years, and this was the first time he had been assaulted.

“I don’t feel safe,” said Rodriguez, who was born in Puerto Rico. “You don’t feel safe in any part of the world.” Rodriguez said he did not get a good look at his attacker. His younger sister, Luisa Rodriguez, said she was saddened by the incident.

Other neighbors commented that the area had become dangerous only recently. Police report that over the past two years, robberies in Precinct 43, which includes Parkchester, have risen 3.3 percent.

“I’ve seen all kinds of stuff happening in the last couple years,” said Ronald Smith, 69, a retired social worker. “I’ve been here eight years and it’s getting worse and worse.”

Smith said security in the area was not enough. “I’m checking when I go out at night to see who’s behind me,” he said. “I’m checking to see who’s on the elevator with me. You learn to be cautious. These little incidents make you that way.”

In August, a 64-year-old man was assaulted and mugged by three assailants while entering his building in Fordham Heights, 3 miles away.

Police are asking anyone with information about Rodriguez’s attacker, who they believe is in his late teens, to report to the website nypdcrimestoppers.com. All tips are anonymous.

Norwood residents marched through Williamsbridge Oval Park with homemade signs Tuesday evening to speak out agains the recent spate of muggings thats taken place there. (CARL V. LEWIS/The Bronx Ink)

A rowdy band of about two dozen Bronx residents marched through Williamsbridge Oval Park Tuesday evening, chanting and waving signs with hand-drawn messages saying “Hey Thugs, Stay Out!” and “Keep Our Park Safe!”

The demonstration came in response to a recent spate of muggings in the park during the last few weeks. Within the past month alone, at least five people have been assaulted at the park in broad daylight, police said.

The rash of assaults has caused longtime residents such as Dilleta Pina, 61, to become concerned about their safety. Pina lives just two blocks away on Hull Avenue, and came out to the demonstration Tuesday to voice her frustration.

“I’ve never seen anything like this here,” Pina said. “The park’s always been the place in the neighborhood that parents can send their kids without having to worry, so it’s really unsettling to have this happening.”

Columbia University graduate student Nathaniel Hertz, 24, said he was walking near the basketball courts one afternoon in early September when two men punched him, stole his phone and took $10 from his wallet.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Herz, who was unable to yell for help quickly enough to stop the thieves from getting away. “It was the middle of the day.”

Lt. Mike Donnelly with the NYPD’s 52nd Precinct said he believes the muggings are somehow related, since each of the attacks has followed a similar pattern.

“Right now we think it’s the same group of guys who are just coming up to parkgoers, knocking them over, taking their money and running,” Donnelly said.

Donnelly said that while an investigation into the assaults remains ongoing, police have assigned additional officers to patrol the park. The victims have all been adults, Donnelly said.

For Annette Melindez, a mother of three who lives nearby on Bainbridge Avenue, the ramping up of police presence in the park comes as a welcome development.

“We desperately need more police here,” said Melindez, who often allows her kids to travel in groups to the park after school. “Just the other day one of my friends was taking her daughter to a girl scouts meeting when a man mugged her in the middle of the park, and there were no police around to stop it.”

But frequent parkgoer Eileen Markey said she believes there’s a better solution to the Oval’s mugging problem than bringing in more police officers.

“What we need to do is let these thugs know that we won’t tolerate this behavior by continuing to come out to the park and not letting them scare us away,” said Markey, a local resident and reporter for CityLimits Magazine. “Having lots of people in the park at all times is the only way to stop what’s been going on”