By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
LOWER EAST SIDE — A homeless man brutally beat another man to within inches of his life in a Lower East Side park Saturday night using the victim’s own crutches, according to police.
David Larose, 39, knocked the victim to the ground inside Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Forsyth Street near Delancey Street about 8:30 p.m., and viciously pummeled him until he was bloody and unconscious, police said.
Witnesses said the violence erupted when the victim, Frank Pischettola, 30, told Larose not to bother a woman who was hanging out with a group of people in the park.
That’s when Larose grabbed Pischettola’s walking crutch and began bashing him in the head with it, according to police and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Larose then climbed on top of Pischettola, continued clubbing him in the face with the crutch, and repeatedly punched him and smashed his head against the ground, the criminal complaint said.
Police found Pischettola unconscious in a pool of blood at the scene, according to the NYPD.
A witness said that Larose himself had previously been the victim of beatings inside the park and that he was “hyped up” before the incident.
“He was angry because people keep coming at him to fight,” said Jerome Long, 53, of Harlem, who saw the attack.
“He was trying to show these dudes that this ain’t going to keep happening.”
Pischettola was transported to Bellevue Hospital in critical but stable condition with a broken eye socket and bleeding to his brain, police and the DA’s office said. He had to be placed on respirator to help him breathe.
“The guy who hit him, I’ve never seen him get that angry,” Long said, adding that Larose has been living on the street for at least a decade. “I just feel sorry about the guy getting hurt. I hope he don’t lose his life.”
Larose was charged with a count each of assault in the first and second degrees. He is currently being held without bail, the DA’s office said.
The alleged perpetrator has seven prior arrests for assault, drugs and loitering, the New York Post reported.
