Video: Suspect Violently Punches Elderly Woman in Face During Random Attack

A suspect brutally sucker-punched an elderly woman while she was walking down a sidewalk in Brooklyn, New York, on September 19.

Surveillance footage shows the moment when 71-year-old Joan Baptiste, who is originally from Grenada, was approached and hit in the face by a man wearing a grey outfit.

Baptiste falls to the ground as the suspect walks away from the scene, leaving her injured and unconscious on the pavement. Reports said the force of the punch broke her jaw.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) said the assault occurred around 5:25 p.m. on New York Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.

On Monday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot F. Shea posted the video and a photo of the suspect on Twitter:

Following the attack, emergency crews took Baptiste to Kings County Hospital, where she was treated by medical staff.

“My jaw broke. When I went to the hospital they did surgery. I had cuts in my mouth about five stitches,” she recalled.

Baptiste said when she woke up in the hospital after the incident occurred, she thought she had experienced a bad fall and had no recollection of the attack.

“I did not know nothing,” she said.

When Baptiste was shown the surveillance footage, she was shocked by the suspect’s actions.

“If you have mother or parents or family you would never do such thing to nobody. You’d try to help somebody when they need help,” said the mother of three and grandmother of 11.

However, Baptiste expressed her gratefulness that the assault did not happen in the street where she might have been hurt worse.

“God is good. It could have been worse. I could have been dead,” she commented. “If it had happened in the street, with vehicles coming and they pass over me, then it could have been worse. So I thank God it happened that way.”

Reports said the police are still searching for the suspect and have asked anyone with information to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Baptiste said she is confident that authorities will find the man and keep him from hurting anyone else.

“Nothing happens a first time, he will be found sometime,” she told CBS New York.