UPDATE: There has been an arrest. Cops have arrested 19-year-old Saul Nunez for the attack. He faces assault and criminal possession of a weapon charges.
—
Ninety-one-year-old Juan Llorens was out taking a stroll, pushing his shopping cart, when, as the video above shows, he became the victim of a completely random and unprovoked violent attack by a young man wielding a cane.
The frightening turn of events left Llorens stunned and bruised with a bloody ear.
He told the New York Post about the harrowing ordeal.
“They hit me with a big bat,” Llorens said. “I don’t know who it was. He was young and skinny. He just kept beating me.”
“I’m very tired,” Llorens told the New York Daily News after a restless night. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping all night. … This could have ended up as a homicide. He almost killed me … A man that’s just crazy. We didn’t know each other.”
RELATED: A knife-wielding man dripping blood walked into a grocery store holding this gruesome item
According to the newspaper, Llorens was walking on Broadway near West 204th Street in Inwood just before 6 p.m. Friday. Suddenly a man wearing a New York Yankees cap and headphones walking in the opposite direction turned around, kicked Llorens’ shopping cart and viciously swung the cane he was holding at the old man’s head.
A man standing nearby processed what was happening and quickly jumped between Llorens and his attacker, who ended up fleeing the scene before police arrived.
“He’s intimidated now,” said the man’s 53-year-old son, who is also named Juan. “He’s a little nervous.”
The son said everybody in the neighborhood knows his father, a Cuban immigrant, who has lived in the area since 1983.
RELATED: Hey, angry dog-walker crossing the street, watch out for that pole!
The son said his father did not recognize the man who attacked him. The elder Llorens was taken to the hospital and had his badly damaged left ear stitched up.
“He didn’t want to go to the hospital. He’s a tough guy,” his son said.
Police believe the assailant is between 20-and-30 years old, around 5-foot-10 and approximately 150 pounds. At the time of the attack, he was dressed in a gray long-sleeved shirt, blue pants with checker-box print and black sneakers.
Police continue to search for him.