Is Riverside Park Safe at Night? Crime
By Daniel Fitzsimmons
Riverside Park at night is quite beautiful, even along the stretch of park where two assaults were carried out earlier this month. On a recent night, it was raining lightly, at that annoying rate where you go back and forth on whether to use an umbrella. But the rain wasn’t keeping the dozens of bicyclists, joggers and dog walkers from their usual routines.
But on Nov. 6, a homeless man walking in the park around 10 p.m. - three hours before curfew - was accosted by four strangers who demanded his bag. The man refused, and was thrown over the railing into the Hudson River somewhere between 68th St. and 73rd St. He would stay there on the riverbank with a broken leg until the next morning.
About an hour later, a 21-year-old college student walking through the park in the same area was assaulted by who police believe to be the same perpetrators. This time, they threw a bag over their victim’s head and beat him with a rock, according to police. An account in The New York Post said the student was bleeding profusely from his head and his face was swollen. His laptop, phone and wallet were stolen. A Parks Dept. employee later said the thugs had bashed the student’s head against a pillar. He was taken to the hospital and treated for his injuries.
The homeless man was found the next morning around 7 a.m. by a woman walking her dog and also taken to the hospital.
In response to the attacks, police in the 20th Precinct said they stepped up patrols in the park of both uniformed and plainclothes officers. A week later, three of the four suspects had been arrested.
Carlos Rivera, 18, was charged with criminal possession of stolen property in connection with the attack on the college student. Kevon Watt, 19, was charged with robbery, two counts of assault, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. Christian Torres, 22, was charged with the same crimes as Watt.
Rivera and Watt live in East Harlem. Police said Torres is homeless. They declined to say whether they’re close to identifying or arresting the fourth suspect.
The night before the arrests a light fog was rolling in off the Hudson, diffusing the light from lampposts along the paths. Overhead the cars hummed down the Henry Hudson Parkway, a sound that while ever present is easy to tune out.
What’s left of the abandoned 69th St. Transfer Bridge was silhouetted by twinkling lights across the Hudson River, which each year claims a bit more of the sinking and derelict jetties that used to help transfer rail cars to the Weehawken Yards in New Jersey.
At 8 p.m. a Parks Dept. patrol car drove to the end of the West 70th St. pier, turned around, and continued south along the river.
June and Ava Ramirez were taking an evening stroll along the river and were surprised to hear of the attacks a week before.
“I walk around here with my girlfriends sometimes,” said Ava Ramirez. “I don’t feel unsafe as long as I’m with someone.”
The Ramirezes live on the Upper West Side and said they use the park quite often. News of the attacks isn’t likely to change that, they said, and they don’t feel unsafe in the park.
“We always use the buddy system,” said June Ramirez.
Chase DeShields works for the Parks Dept. and is in the park every day, he said. He’s not concerned for his safety, and said while he read about the attacks, those who carried it out aren’t likely to return anytime soon because they caught the attention of the police.
“Those kids, they’re not going to come back,” said DeShields, pausing to chat in front of the ball field at West 72nd St.
He said the attack on the college student occurred on the south side of the pier at West 70th St.
“It was on the other end, on the dark side,” said DeShields. “There’s no light down there. This part is lit up, so it’s pretty safe.”
Indeed, around 68th St. there are patches of darkness where the West Side Highway casts its shadow or where the lampposts along the running and biking paths don’t quite make ends meet. While the paths are mostly lit up, it’s not hard to imagine where an attack might take place.
But around 8:15 p.m., people could still be seen running and bicycling the paths, past NYPD signs offering a reward for information on those who were there the week before, looking for victims, and finding them in a homeless man and a young college student.