WEST VILLAGE — A West Village woman was maced by a group of teens who attacked her as she was walking to the PATH station at Christopher Street, police said.
The 51-year-old woman said she was heading to the PATH train with her husband about 7:40 a.m. last Sunday when the pair got into a confrontation with a group of six to eight teens who were blocking the sidewalk outside of 125 Christopher St., police and the woman said.
“I was really scared — I was in shock,” said the victim, a longtime West Village resident who asked that her name not be used. “All of sudden I was sprayed in the face with something and I couldn’t see.”
Police arrested three 17-year-old boys — Daishawn Felder, Majid Cooper and Barber Corey — and charged each of them with one count of third degree menacing, a misdemeanor, according to their criminal complaint. Felder was also charged with third degree assault.
The teens were released without bail and are due back in court on Oct. 29.
A lawyer for Felder did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The victim, a videographer who has lived with her husband for the past 15 years near where the attack occurred, said the incident started when she and her husband tried to move single-file past the row of teens on Christopher Street.
Out of nowhere, one of the young men suddenly shouted "Hey!" in her ear, she said.
The couple stopped walking and reprimanded the teen for screaming, she said. The pair then confronted the group, chastising them for being part of the general rowdiness of teenagers in the neighborhood, the victim said.
“I starting saying, ‘Why can’t you just leave people alone, we hear you all night screaming on the street, we see you throwing garbage on the street, why can’t you just leave us alone?’” the victim said.
The young man who had screamed in the victim's ear began shouting, “What are you going to do about it?” she said.
As the dispute grew heated, one of the teens tried to calm the group down, apologizing to her and her husband, she said.
“The nice one said to my husband, ‘I’m sorry, we were just trying to tell your wife that she was pretty, we don’t want a fight,'” the woman said.
Everyone shook hands, and the woman said she thought, "Oh wow, that was nice, now we can all move on."
But an instant after the apology, the teen who had screeched in her ear suddenly sprayed her with Mace, leaving her screaming for help as passersby came to her aid, the woman said.
“I just couldn’t believe what had happened," she said. "Here I was in broad daylight, with my husband, and I just had some painful chemical sprayed in my face. It was all a blur after that, but I did heard the nice one shouting, ‘Why did you do that, you didn’t have to do that.'"
"I'm still shook up," she said. "I want these teens to know that you don't just get to do whatever you want — they're bullies."
