62-year-old Staten Island man attacked by teenage mob while walking in Sunnyside at night, suspect arrested

A 62-year-old Staten Island resident reportedly said he wanted to move after he was brutally attacked by a mob of teenagers during his daily evening walk last month.

The man was walking near the intersection of Howard Avenue and Clove Road in the Sunnyside neighborhood shortly after 7 p.m. on July 15 when the group of offenders began harassing him.

According to a video obtained by silive.com, surveillance cameras on the street recorded the moment when nine teenagers followed the man down the street.

One of the perpetrators rushed behind the man, who jumped into the middle of a busy street to avoid the group while the rest of the group chased him across the other side of the street.

“He raised his fists and told me to pick one, and I said 'not interested,'” the man told NBC New York. “I thought it was just a kid's joke.”

“I don't know, maybe it made them angry or something, I don't know, but they wanted trouble,” he added.

The man said the laughing group did not try to rob him or make any comments.

The man was struck multiple times as he ran out of camera view as the attack continued, leaving him with bruises to his knee and puncture wounds to his finger.

He recalled that his attackers fled when they noticed others rushing to help the man lying on the street.

The man was taken to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, where he incurred medical costs of approximately $5,000, according to silive.com.

“His mouth is completely disfigured. He was taken by surprise and kicked all over his body,” a relative of the victim told the outlet. “He fell flat on his face and didn't expect anyone to hit him.”

The man claims that the group targeted several people before his disturbing encounter.

“They actually harassed two other people before I got there,” he told NBC New York. “So I was basically ambushed.”

Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said he watched a video showing a group of “young people” getting off a bus and walking up and down Clove Street for several minutes.

“They provoked and eventually attacked a person who ended up in hospital,” Fossella told silive.com.

“He was just going about his business on a beautiful summer night, walking down the street. Eventually he was surrounded by a group of people,” Fossella said. “He ended up running across Clove Road – he could have been killed if he had been hit by a car.”

“The point is, it could have been anyone's grandfather or grandmother just walking down the street, minding their own business, and they were attacked, and that is just unbearable.”

The attack leaves the man afraid to go outside and even wants him to move.

“I want to leave here, I don’t want to live here anymore,” he said.

On Thursday, New York police arrested two minors in connection with the July attack.

According to silive.com, two boys aged 13 and 14 were charged with assault.