Cops arrest 42-year-old in assault on 70-year-old in her Bay Ridge apartment

A 42-year-old man is under arrest for violently attacking a 70-year-old in her Bay Ridge apartment.

Queens resident Luis Hernandez was charged with assault and burglary in the first degree in the incident, which took place in the evening of Saturday, January 20.

According to a police source, 68th Precinct officers responded to the scene, 359 Ovington Avenue, after a call was made to 911 by the victim’s neighbor, who lives in the apartment underneath, at around 10:15 p.m.

The source said that the man reported hearing a “commotion” and also hearing the victim “screaming for help.”

The responding cops went up to the apartment, where they also heard the victim screaming for help, and knocked on the door. When no one answered, they kicked it in and saw the victim on the floor, with her face, arms and torso bloody and her apparent assailant “still on top of her,” the source recounted.

The woman’s assailant had smashed a vase on her head, the source said, adding that the apartment was littered with glass from a broken mirror and that the alleged perpetrator was seen by the officers “cutting her up on the throat and arms” with a piece of glass.

The source said that the officers on the scene “tried to place [the alleged perpetrator] under arrest, but he resisted and they ended up tasering him.” Once he was in handcuffs, the source continued, the officers attended to the victim who was bleeding heavily from the neck, putting gauze on her neck to stop the bleeding, before she was transferred to NYU Lutheran Medical Center, where she received 30 stitches.

The doctors and nurses at the medical center, the police source added, said that the timely call from the victim’s neighbor and the officers’ actions likely saved her life.

The police source said that the alleged assailant had gotten in by knocking on the victim’s door. She opened it, believing it to be a neighbor. He then “pushed his way in, said the police were after him and went into the kitchen to exit. But, she had a gate on the window,” the source explained, adding that it was then that “a fight started.” In addition, he noted, “We weren’t looking for anyone.”

The alleged assailant was “under the influence of something,” the police source added. “We don’t know what, yet.”

According to sources, Hernandez pleaded not guilty at his January 23 arraignment.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

P.O. Christian Aleman, Sergeant Nicholas Danna, P.O. Michael Pascale, and P.O. Sanad Musallam were the police officers who responded to the assault on Saturday night. They are seen here with Captain Joseph Hayward, center, the commanding officer of the 68th Precinct.
P.O. Christian Aleman, Sergeant Nicholas Danna, P.O. Michael Pascale, and P.O. Sanad Musallam were the police officers who responded to the assault on Saturday night. They are seen here with Captain Joseph Hayward, center, the commanding officer of the 68th Precinct.

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