INWOOD — A man returning home from walking his dog in Inwood was beaten in his hallway by a pair of knife-wielding attackers, police and the victim said.
The 41-year-old man, who asked that his name not be used, was walking home to his apartment with his Daschund at 11:30 p.m. Friday when when two men in their 20s who appeared to be drunk followed him into his building on Seaman Avenue, between Academy and West 204th streeets, and rode up the building’s elevator to his floor.
The men pressed a button for a higher floor, but when the elevator stopped, they followed him out, he said.
When he turned around and confronted them, the men claimed to be going to his apartment number. He asked if they were lost, and when he lowered his gaze to pick up some dropped keys, the two men beat and kicked him to the ground, according to the victim.
The victim's wife heard the commotion outside the door, and ran out of the apartment screaming at the attackers, sending them fleeing down the stairs and out the apartment building, she said.
"You can’t understand the type of force coming at you," she said of his attack, adding that she and her husband have been struggling to understand the incident since it occurred.
"That’s not something you are capable of from within unless you’ve received it first."
Police later confiscated a 4-to-6-inch kitchen knife from the stairwell and are currently investigating the incident, authorities said.
The Inwood resident of 10 years described his attackers as both in their early-20s and wearing baseball caps. One attacker was approximately 5-foot-11 and was wearing a white t-shirt. The other was about 5-foot-8 or 10, was wearing a blue t-shirt and a bandage on his left hand.
The victim suffered a fractured eye socket, black eye, a split lip and bruising on his body and was taken to the Allen Pavilion before being taken to NewYork-Presbyterian for a cat scan.
The victim and his wife said they were intent on making the incident public so that others would know what was going on in the neighborhood, considering a recent spate of violent attacks nearby.
“You just don’t want this happening to anybody else and the only way to make it stop is to tell everybody,” said the woman, whose name is also being withheld by DNAinfo.com New York.
