An 81-year-old New York City woman is not letting a random attack by a man who punched her in the side of the head on Friday deter her from walking her dog daily, sources said.
FOX 5 in New York City reported that the woman, who preferred to be called only Gloria, said she feels “lucky” to be alive after she was randomly beaten and hospitalized on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Gloria, who suffered bruises on her face and neck, spoke exclusively to FOX 5's Duarte Geraldino.
She told the station that she doesn't remember much of the incident because she suffered a concussion from the attack, but she still described the incident as “scary.”
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“That's the scary part, [it happened] “In front of my building,” she said.
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Surveillance footage obtained by FOX 5 shows Gloria walking her dog on a sidewalk near W. 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue around 7 p.m. A man in black appears to say something to her as he walks past her.
A few moments later, the man in black turns and walks up to Gloria from behind, then lunges and punches her in the face.
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Although the station paused the video and did not show the full attack, it reports that Gloria hit her head on the side of the building before losing her balance and falling to the ground.
In the next clip in the video, Gloria is seen lying on the ground and the man walking away, while bystanders rush to her aid.
“I didn't want to see the tape and maybe because I feel so lucky, because he could have had a knife,” she told the news station. “My neck was almost as swollen as my face.”
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Despite the attack, Gloria told the reporter that she still walks her dog outside. “I'm not going to hide in my apartment,” she said.
The NYPD is still investigating the case.
The attack adds to a growing list of violent attacks taking place in the Big Apple.
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In March, several young women took to social media to claim they had been punched in the face or head by strangers while walking in New York City.
One of the women, TikTok user Olivia Brand, uploaded a video on March 17 showing herself being “slammed to the sidewalk by a man.”
“He goes, ‘I’m sorry!’ And then he hits me on the head,” she recalled. “Holy f— — —! What the hell just happened?”
Several other women reported similar incidents.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the New York City Police Department for information about the incident.
Fox News' Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.
Source original article: New York woman, 81, walking her dog feels 'lucky' to be alive after video shows man brutally punching her in the face
