Crime Watch

According to a release distributed by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Oscar Fuller, 35, was found guilty of punching a woman in the face while arguing over a parking spot on E. 14th Street in Feb. 2011. He faces charges of assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor. "This was a brutal and unjustified act of rage," said District Attorney Vance. "That a petty argument over a parking space could escalate into physical violence is shameful. I would like to thank our prosecutors for their persistence in trying this case, and the jury for its service." According to the DA, the victim, Lana Rosas, was 25 at the time of the incident. Rosas was reportedly standing on the side of the street at the intersection of 14th Street and Avenue B, holding a parking space for a friend. Fuller, wanting the parking spot, eventually got out of his car, punched Rosas in the face. She was knocked unconscious, says the DA, and fell to the ground, hitting her head on the cement pavement. Rosas was then taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she stayed in a coma for a week, supposedly suffering from a serious brain injury, and the DA says she continues rehabilitation. Fuller fled the scene of the incident, but witnesses captured his license plate number and he was later arrested.