By Serena Solomon and Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Staff
MIDTOWN WEST — Police arrested a construction worker Friday evening in connection with a brutal beating that left a nurse unconscious in a bathroom stall of a Midtown bar.
SVU detectives questioned the suspect, identified as Mbarek Lafrem, 30, of Norwood, Pa., over the beating on early Thursday morning that left the 29-year-old pediatric nurse lying in a pool of blood with a broken eye socket in a bathroom at the bar Social, on W. 48th Street, police said.
Mbarek, a laborer at a construction site near Herald Square, had been staying at a Best Western hotel near the bar, police sources said.
The victim told police she'd rejected a request to dance with him earlier in the night, police sources said.
The suspect was taken into custody after workers at the construction site identify him from a video police released showing a man in a plaid shirt exiting the bar and a few minutes later walking into a nearby convenience store, sources said.
As the suspect was being questioned, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other elected officials gathered in front of the bar late Friday afternoon to distribute flyers seeking information about the incident.
On one side of the flyer was a picture and information about the suspect, and on the other side was a letter from Quinn urging people with information on the crime to come forward, and reminding the public to be safe.
The woman — who police are identifying because she may be the victim of a sexual assault — was beaten so badly she required eye surgery.
A group of 18-year-old school girls from the Professional Performing Arts school, down the road from the Social, took a flyer from Quinn.
"It's freaky, its scary. It reminds you you never know whats going to happen," said Cassia Golding. She and a friend Sabrina Burdick said they were looking forward to going to bars when they come of age, but this crime had made them think twice.
"I'm happy I know about this," said Burdick.
