BATTERY PARK CITY — Two teens were beaten and robbed last month in Battery Park City, police said. News of the attack comes amid reports that the neighborhood's new controversial private security guards allegedly did not do enough to intervene.
According to police, two 16-year-olds were approached "by a group" of individuals, who proceeded to pummel the two boys, then ran off with one of their wallets — which contained just $3, a MetroCard and school I.D. — at about 10 pm on Dec. 19. The attack occurred by North End Avenue and Murray Street, near Battery Park City's ball fields.
One of the teens was repeatedly punched by at least three attackers, causing him to fall and crash his head against the ground, police said. The other victim was punched and kicked again and again. Both were taken to Bellevue Hospital.
The parents of the victims told local paper the Tribeca Trib that teen who hit his head "suffered a concussion, has a skull fracture and bleeding in his brain in three places." His "eye swelled shut and has been under intense monitoring ever since," they said. The other teen was released the day after the attack from the hospital.
According to the Trib and blog A Walk In The Park which first reported the attack, the victims, who were walking with two female friends, were followed by at least 10 young people.
One of teen girls, who were unharmed, spotted one of the new security guards and pleaded for help, she told the Trib. He told the teen that he could call for help, but he couldn't intervene, the report said.
She told the Trib: “We were screaming at him, ‘Help us! Help us, please!’ and he continued talking on the walkie talkie and described the situation. So my friend and I decided that if he’s not going to do anything we started walking towards them, yelling at them. Once we started walking, that’s when he started walking behind us towards them, beginning to yell at the kids, too, saying, ‘Get away. Get away.’” At that point, she added, the attackers fled.
The teen said that the AlledBarton guard called another security guard, who then called Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) Officers.
Unlike security guards, PEP can make arrests, and carry batons, handcuffs and pepper spray. It was the PEP officer who called for police and an ambulance, the teen told the Trib.
Controversy has swirled around the use of private security, as locals have questioned how useful they will be and have lambasted the Battery Park City Authority for making the decision to hire security without community input. Also at issue is the continued role of PEP officers. Currently there are 45 officers, but the BPCA has said that with the increased private security, some number of PEP officers will be cut.
The Battery Park City Authority is defending the actions of the security, saying, in a statement from spokeswoman Robin Forst to DNAinfo New York that "because AlliedBarton was patrolling in the vicinity, they were the first to respond."
"As they were first on the scene, they notified NYPD, EMS and PEP," she said
The parents of the victims were not satisfied with the security guards' actions, according to theTrib:
“My son could have died,” said the mother of the boy with the head injury. “What’s the value here? Who’s valuing my son’s life?”
AlliedBarton did not immediately return request for comment. The parents of the victims did not immediately return request for comment.
