A terrifying incident was captured on video that showed a homeless woman sneak up behind a 16-year old girl before strangling her outside a New York City restaurant.

Surveillance footage from Monday, Oct. 4 shows the teenager showing up to dine outside the Watawa Sushi restaurant in Astoria, Queens at about 5:15 PM. While seated, a disheveled person begins to walk into view and in an instant, they wrap their right arm around the teenager’s neck in an incident that lasts only about a couple of seconds.

The woman continues walking behind the teenager, throwing her arms open and possibly shouting something at her before a bystander intervenes to drive them away. According to the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the 16-year-old suffered from pain, redness and swelling but did not require hospitalization.

Police initially were looking for a male suspect, but later arrested 36-year old female Minerva Martinez on Saturday.

The New York Post reported that Martinez has a criminal record that includes six felony arrests going back to 2016. More recently, an arrest warrant for Martinez’s arrest was issued on grand larceny charges in August.

The woman may suffer from some type of mental illness. The Post said that Martinez was previously found by police in January 2020 muttering to herself before being taken to a hospital.

In the video released of Martinez’s attack on the Queens teenager, she randomly targets them without appearing to try and take anything while continuing to make menacing gestures after the attack.

The NYPD did not say whether or not any relationship existed between the two prior to the incident.

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