| Follow up on this story from yesterday. |
"Mostly I’m shaken. My head still hurts where it was bleeding, where I hit the hydrant — or where he hit me, I don’t know," elderly victim Geraldine said in an exclusive phone interview, asking that her last name be withheld for safety reasons.
"Mainly it’s psychological — just the fear of going out on the street," she added.
Geraldine, a Bronx native who has lived in Manhattan for more than 50 years, said she was on her way to Duane Reade when 31-year-old Rashid Brimmage allegedly shoved her to the ground near Third Avenue and East 16th Street Gramercy Park last Friday afternoon.
Geraldine hit her head on a fire hydrant and started bleeding, she said. A passerby saw the assault, called 911 and an ambulance rushed her to nearby Beth Israel Hospital, she said.
The former teacher said her physical wounds were relatively minor and have since healed — but the mental toll has been much more severe.
"This damned guy put me in a state where I’m fearful to walk the streets alone. So my super’s trying to find somebody who will walk me to a park nearby or to the supermarket, that kind of thing. So that’s the problem," she said.
Cops busted Brimmage for the caper Tuesday after Sherlocks released footage of the attack.
Brimmage was busted by cops Tuesday and charged with assault after Sherlocks recognized him from video footage of the attack, authorities said.
The frequent offender has now been arrested 103 times since 2005 for petty crimes and sex offenses, sources said.
The creep was convicted of sexual misconduct in 2012, then arrested for two sex offenses in 2014, police sources said.
In May of that year, he was busted for exposing and fondling himself on an East Harlem street, the sources said.
Just months later, in July, he was arrested for grabbing a woman’s behind at a Third Avenue deli.
In 2017, he failed to notify authorities that he changed his address and had to register as a sex offender, state records show.
At the time of Friday’s attack, Brimmage had three open criminal cases in the city, according to court records.
| More from NBC New York courtesy of M. Murcek and Frank G: |
Police fear Brimmage will receive yet another desk appearance ticket for the latest incident, freeing him to attack at random again, the bigwig said.