A 58-year-old Norwood resident told the Norwood News he was the victim of verbal harassment and an attempted robbery on East Gun Hill Road in the early hours of Thursday, Oct. 14. The victim, Ralph Washington, said had it not been for the intervention of an officer from the 52nd precinct, he might have been killed or injured.

 

Having recently damaged his knee from a fall while jogging, Washington said he had been on his way to the Montefiore emergency room in Norwood at around 2 a.m. when the incident unfolded. “I couldn’t take the pain no more [from the knee injury], so 2 o’clock in the morning, I was tossing and turning, I decided to go to Monte,” Washington told the Norwood News.

 

He said he had been walking along East Gun Hill Road between Perry Avenue and Putnam Place, while talking to his 85-year-old mother on the phone, and had planned to hang up once he got to the emergency room door. “I crossed the street and as soon as I got past the store, I heard somebody say, ‘What’d you say about my daughter? What’d you say about my daughter?'” he said, adding that the man who was speaking seemed to suddenly appear on the scene and had an aggressive and bizarre manner.

 

“I turned around and he started coming for me,” Washington said, adding that the man lunged at him in an effort to steal his bag while also shouting offensive expletives. “I pushed him and he let go of the bag,” he said. “He tried to snap my bag, and I ran into the middle of the street and it so happened that the cop car was right there and I ran up to them.”

 

Washington said as he ran up East Gun Hill Road to the Putnam Place junction with the assailant in pursuit, he recognized an Officer Hines from the 52nd precinct because he said he had done some prior charity work with the precinct. He said, “I said, ‘Officer, please help me, help me Hines, help me! I can’t run and he’s trying to rob me’.”

 

In his panic, the 58-year-old said he remembered dropping his phone into his bag, not realizing he hadn’t hung up, and that as a result, his mother heard his conversation with the police who he said intervened and secured the situation. “I don’t know if it was drug issues, but I suspect it was mental issues.. problems,” Washington said, adding that in his experience when a guilty party sees the police, they take off, but the alleged aggressor in this case did not seem to react in the same way. “If it wasn’t for that cop, I know I was going down,” Washington said. “He had a weapon. I think it was a knife or whatever.”

 

He said it was the first time he had experienced such an incident in his 58 years, adding that he has lived on Webster Avenue for five years and that things have changed quickly over that time. “It wasn’t like that before,” he said. “This was a wake-up call. I’ve seen it [attacks], but they never came for me,” Washington added. “My husband was telling me the same guy did something else to somebody else around here. They explained that he had on army fatigues, and was talking to himself.”

 

Washington continued, “They need to take these people off the street, but instead they’re going to keep dumping over here or whatever.” He said he later continued on his way to the hospital and that the police were still at the same location when he was making his way back home. He said he asked them if the area was clear and they confirmed that it was.

 

“I don’t want to press charges because, you know, I think he needs mental health, and you know, he don’t need to be in jail,” Washington said of the alleged assailant. “Had them cops not been there, my leg was going to give out. I don’t even know how I was able to run like that. I guess I was scared to death. He shook me.”

 

The incident brings back into focus the ongoing debate over which profession is best placed to engage with mentally unstable people who are armed, and may harm or pose a threat to themselves or to members of the public, with some arguing that only professionals who are specially trained in mental health should engage with mentally unstable people. However, when incidents arise during unsociable hours, such as in this case, it would require them to be available 24/7 to intervene in such cases, while also taking into account potential threats to safety.

 

B-HEARD, the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, is a team within the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health, and according to City officials “is part of the City’s commitment to treating mental health crises as public health problems, not public safety issues.” Officials say that for the first time in the City’s history, teams of health professionals, including EMTs/paramedics and mental health professionals, are responding to 911 mental health calls, and have started with a pilot program in East Harlem and parts of north and central Harlem.

 

Washington said he is an avid runner and used to go out running at five in the morning but that that has all changed and he now usually waits until it’s bright, when people are going to work, before he goes out to run. “I’m scared to go out my house,” he said.

 

“I go out at 6 o’clock, and I’ll be back in around 12 in the afternoon,” he continued. “It wasn’t like that before. I don’t know what’s going on. It seems like the ’80s and the ’90s are really coming back because you watch the news and you see all this hell, but guess what? They say you don’t believe it until it happens to you. I’m living proof, and I want to thank the officer because if it wasn’t for that Officer Hines from the 52nd precinct, I would not be here.”

Norwood News also spoke to Washington’s mother during a joint interview with mother and son, and asked how it had made her feel, hearing the incident unfold on the phone in real time. “It scared me ’cause I didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “To hear all that on the phone, it was too much for her,” Washington said. “If it wasn’t for him [Hines], I would be dead, and you would be burying a son,” he said to his mother.

 

Washington said it’s not the first time he has been verbally harassed in the neighborhood, and gave another example of when a member of the public traveling on a City bus along Mosholu Parkway, said to him, “I’m going to fxxx you up! I’m going to fxxx you up! Pick a stop!” On that occasion, Washington said he got off at the stop closest to the 52nd precinct in order to feel safe.

 

According to NYPD data, citywide, year-to-date, reported hate crimes are up by 91.9 percent compared to the same period last year (435, up from 229). In the Bronx, year-to-date, reported hate crimes have risen by 116 percent compared to the same period last year (39, up from 18), and in the 52nd precinct, year-to-date, they are up by 200 percent compared to the same period last year (3, up from 1).

 

Meanwhile, across the country, the FBI reported on Oct. 25 that of the 8,052 reported hate crimes recorded in 2020, which involved 11,126 victims, 61.8 percent of victims were targeted because of their race/ethnicity/ancestry, 20 percent because of their sexual orientation, 13.3 percent because of their religion, 2.7 percent because of gender identity bias, 1.4 percent because of disability bias, and 0.7 percent because of gender bias.

 

Norwood News recently reported that a man was arrested and charged for attacks on various synagogues in the Northwest Bronx earlier this year, and in September 2020, we reported on a series of hate crimes targeting the transgender community. In December 2020, a bill for which State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (S.D. 34) was the lead sponsor, was signed into law by then Gov. Andrew Cuomo which prohibits the State of New York from selling or displaying symbols of hate.

 

Back in the Bronx, Washington said he loves his neighborhood, but at night time he said things have changed. “Walking around, I don’t know if they’re homeless or what,” he said. “They’re talking to themselves, and they’re starting trouble with people. What if it’s 6 o’clock in the morning, and the stores are open, and the same ones go there, you know? I feel sorry for them [the store workers].”

 

Recently, we also reported on the difficulties faced by officials from New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and their partners, like BronxWorks, in convincing some people experiencing homelessness, who are camped out in places like Mosholu Parkway, to accept help and social services.

 

Norwood News reached out to the NYPD press office and to the 52nd precinct to corroborate the Oct. 14th attempted robbery alleged by Washington, but did not receive any formal confirmation. According to the NYPD database, there is an Officer Tahreek M Hines assigned to the 52nd precinct.

 

Of the alleged assailant, Washington concluded, “I don’t want the person to go to jail. You know, clearly, it’s not his fault. How would you say that? He know not what he do.”