HARLEM — Three attackers told a woman who who they beat down as she shopped for shower curtains, "This is for Ron," police said.
Kathy Smith, 55, was at a linen store on 51 East 125th St. when a woman she had never seen before punched her in the face. Then another woman grabbed her hair and pulled her to the ground where a third woman joined in by kicking and punching her, Smith said.
“I was shocked, I thought it was a robbery," she said. "I kept saying, ‘Why are you doing this?’ They said, ‘This is for Ron.’”
Ron is the name of a man who lives on Smith's block on 127th Street between Lenox and Fifth avenues. It is also the name of the man's adult son, Smith said.
When police showed her a surveillance video of the three women entering the store, she recognized a man she believes is Ron's son directing the women by pointing in the direction of the store. As soon as the women left the store, the man Smith claims is Ron, also ran away, she said.
Because both men are named Ron, she is not sure which one her attackers were referring to. But she says she is certain of who was on the video.
"I know who I saw on the tape," said Smith, a retired dietitian who has lived in the building for 10 years.
She believes the attack was motivated over a job cleaning up a church next door. Ron and his son recently repaired the church's roof and installed a new bathroom. They planned to charge the church $2,000 to clean up the backyard space.
However, she got a group of volunteers from Harlem Grown to clean up the space for free.
"He and his son were planning to do that together," she said.
When contacted by phone, a man who answered to Ron repeatedly said, “It had nothing to do with me.” When asked if it had anything to do with his son, he hung up.
The project has taken more than two weeks to complete. Along with overgrown weeds, they also had to remove debris from the site and cut down a tree that had fallen over, said Dave Bowman from Harlem Grown.
"It looked like a jungle from Vietnam, there was bamboo growing everywhere," he added.
Despite the violence, she does not plan to move away or back down.
“I love my neighborhood and I love my block,” she said. “I’m not going to let anyone chase me away.”
Smith sustained minor injuries during the attack. Most of the scratches have healed.
“They took away my peace of mind,” she said. “More than anything that is what I am most angry about. I look behind my shoulders when I walk down the street. They put fear in me.”
The three women, who also stole $225 from Smith, have not been arrested, according to the NYPD.
