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Man Arrested for Beating and Robbing Writer in Central Park, Sources Say

By  Murray Weiss and Aidan Gardiner | July 21, 2015 1:11pm 

 Oscar Jiggetts, pictured, attacked writer Marianna Milkis-Edwards, sources said.
Oscar Jiggetts, pictured, attacked writer Marianna Milkis-Edwards, sources said.
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NYPD

MANHATTAN — Police arrested a man on Tuesday, six days after he beat and robbed an aspiring writer in broad daylight in Central Park, sources said.

Oscar Jiggetts, 55, attacked Marianna Milkis-Edwards, 26, on the pedestrian path near the Great Hill, near 102nd Street, about 11 a.m on July 15, according to police and reports.

"When a dark face with a matching fist jumped at me, I thought, 'This must be a joke,'" Milkis-Edwards, who moved to the city from Russia in 2013, wrote in the Daily News.

Jiggetts, who stands about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, punched her and demanded she hand over her purse, so she did, an NYPD spokeswoman said. He took her wallet and tossed the purse back to her on the ground, she added.

"Next, my head ringing from a half-dozen powerful punches, kneeling in the mud on the side of one of Central Park’s trails, I watched the man walk away with my wallet," she wrote.

He fled the scene and she was taken to the Central Park Precinct, police said.

Milkis-Edwards, who was visiting the park to "get some fresh air and find a quiet place to write," suffered bruising and swelling to her left eye, police said.

Jiggetts aprently droped Milkis-Edwards' ID on the street in Harlem and a passerby later found it, sources said.

The passerby was going to return the ID directly to her until he recognized the name and notified police, sources said.

They showed him photos of the suspect and the good Samaritan said Jiggetts regularly hung around the neighborhood, so police waited there for him, sources said.

Jiggetts, of Washington Heights, was arrested Tuesday and charged with her assault, sources said.

He's been arrested 16 times before and was out on parole for another robbery when he attacked Milkis-Edwards, sources said.