Caught On Camera: 64-year-Old NYC Man Punched, Choked Over Parking Spot Dispute

A 64-year-old NYC man was recently viciously attacked by a stranger over a parking spot dispute. On Tuesday, police released surveillance footage of the attacker and his getaway car and are seeking the public’s help in identifying and tracking him down.

The incident happened on Aug. 2. Pedro Deoca, 64, who collects and repairs air conditioners, was driving his white van when he found a parking spot around 6.15 p.m. near the corner of Eldert St. and Wyckoff Ave. in Bushwick, police said.

But a group of men had parked their car near the spot in a way that Deoca could not park his vehicle. "I asked in English, 'Excuse me, move a little so I can park,'" Deoca told the NY Daily News. The men then cursed him in Spanish and taunted him for being old.

Deoca then moved further down the street to park his vehicle. Surveillance video shows that one of the men approached the elderly man when he opened his vehicle’s side door and started hitting him. The assailant could be seen choking the handyman and lifting him by the throat before punching and thrashing him repeatedly across the face. The suspect then threw Deoca to the ground and kept attacking him until a bystander broke the fight.

"I kept minding my business and then he punched me extremely hard," he said. "[He] punched my face, gave me four punches to my ribs…I didn’t think they would attack me," Deoca told the outlet. "After our first little argument I moved my car and went about my day like it was nothing and he just came up to me and attacked me, simply because he felt like it."

The assailant then fled the scene in a red Mercedes, said police.

After the brutal attack, Deoca went home and his girlfriend called an ambulance as he was unable to move much. The victim was taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center for treatment, WLNY reported.

Neighbors told Deoca that he was assaulted by a member of a local Panamanian gang, according to the Daily News report. "If they kill me, bad luck," Deoca said, adding: "They will pay and cops will know who did it. I’m not going to be hiding in my apartment."

Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the attacker. Anyone with information about his attacker is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477.