SUNSET PARK — A toddler was injured and left bleeding heavily from the face after a shirtless man hurled a glass bottle during a street fight with another man in Sunset Park Tuesday morning, witnesses and police said.
The 3-year-old boy was being pushed by his mom past Gold Star Supermarket on Fifth Avenue near 60th Street about 9:20 a.m. when Jorge Cayetano, a homeless man who'd been fighting inside, came out and hurled a 22-ounce bottle of Olde English 800 malt liquor at his opponent, according authorities and witnesses.
The beer bottle missed its target but hit the toddler above the right eye, leaving a large gash, a police source said.
"He tried to hit the other guy and he hit the baby," said Yaha Althera, 60.
"He got the bottle in the face," Althera added.
The mother was distraught as her son started bleeding from a cut above his eye, witnesses said.
"She tried to stop the blood. There was a lot of blood on the baby's face. People gave her napkins," Althera said.
The boy was treated at Lutheran Medical Center for minor injuries, police said.
"The guy, I don't think, wanted to hit the baby. He ran away fast," he added.
A police source said Cayetano, who's had previous run-ins with police.
Police brought in a K-9 unit to try and track him down, an NYPD spokesman said.
Neighbors said he's a regular around the neighborhood.
"Everybody knows him. Everybody's tired of this guy. He bothers everybody in the street," Althera said.
Cayetano frequently fights with other men, neighbors said.
"They're always here and they're always making problems. I was cutting hair this morning they were fighting out front," said barber Osvalo Ujilez, 26.
"If they take him away, I hope he doesn't come back," Ujilez added.
