By Sarah Ferguson
Just a block away from last Thursday’s fatal Campos Plaza shooting, an apparently mentally deranged man got into a heated argument with an older man at 1:45 p.m. on Friday and pushed him through the plate glass window of the Still Photos shop at 185 Avenue C.
According to witnesses, the two men got into what seemed like a random fight on the sidewalk. “The one guy went up to the other and started screaming at him, ‘Why are you looking at me?!’ and it went from there,” said Eddie Cabrera, a 43-year-old amputee, who was peddling T-shirts and key chains from a small table outside the C-Town supermarket across the street. “He was screaming at him and he got up in his face, so the older guy in the white T-shirt swung his cane to try and back him away. He put the cane up and then they were struggling with it, and the perpetrator gave him a push and he went through the window.
“The other guy went through too and landed on top of him,” Cabrera said. “Then he pulled himself out and went into the building next door and came out again like nothing happened, and that’s when the cops came and got him.”
The heavily bleeding victim collapsed on the sidewalk and was taken to Bellevue hospital, where he was treated for deep lacerations on the arms. He was reported in stable condition.
The assailant was treated for minor injuries at Bellevue; police did not say whether he was still being held or what charges were filed against him.
Police cordoned off the sidewalk, which was covered in shattered glass soaked in blood, closing access to both the photo store and the Cuban restaurant Cafecito next door, as well as a neighboring auto repair shop.
According to Cabrera, the assailant is an African-American man in his early 30s who lives in the neighborhood and is known to be schizophrenic. “He stops and stares at people and knocks down garbage cans and stuff. He’s pretty violent, so people just ignore him or stay away from him.
“It didn’t seem like it was a grudge,” Cabrera added. “It just seemed like it was an instant-moment kind of thing.”
But others said they thought the older man may have provoked him with his cane.
