A doctor is on the road to recovery after going through an emergency surgery to fix a broken jaw after a brutal attack in Greenwich Village on Saturday morning. The victim was apparently called anti-gay slur as well.
Detectives in New York are investigating if the seemingly random attack on Sina Rezaie was motivated by hate, reported NBC New York.
"He called me a ------- and then half a block later, he came from behind and kicked and punched me multiple times," the 29-year-old said from his hospital bed on Saturday night.
Recalling the incident, Rezaie said that he was heading home from the subway in Greenwich Village when he heard a man shouting an anti-gay slur at him. Then the suspect Rezaie came from behind and attacked him. According to witnesses, after falling to the ground, Rezaie went to a nearby bar to ask for help.
Laurie Beck and Richard Delay were working when the incident happened. They are both friends of Rezaie. "I just kind of saw our friend walking outside kind of erratically and I called (Delay's) attention 'go see what's going on with our neighbor, it looks like he's distressed.' (Delay) went outside to check it out, then he starts waving to me so I grabbed a bottle of water and some paper towels and ran outside," Beck said.
Delay saw him holding his mouth and blood was running out from face. "He said that he had gotten attacked by some guy who said something to him as he came off the train. Apparently the guy called him a slur and then threw him to the ground, and started kicking him repeatedly," he added.
Rezaie was taken to a hospital where he underwent a surgery. His jaw now has screws and metal plates. He said that prior to the incident, he always felt safe in the neighborhood. He is still wondering why he was the target and what was the motive behind the assault. "I don't know why this happened to me," he said.
There are security cameras throughout the neighborhood, but police are yet to catch the suspect.
Just a week before the attack, people celebrated Pride month on the streets of Greenwich Village, reported Daily Mail.
