The man suspected of sucker punching actor Steve Buscemi in Kips Bay last week appeared to be muttering to himself as he walked down the street moments before the random attack, according to new video footage.
clip Retrieved from CBS News The suspect is seen saying something to himself as he walks north on Third Avenue, moments before he allegedly slams the 66-year-old “Boardwalk Empire” star.
Buscemi, from New York, was photographed with a black eye and a bruised chin in her first public appearance since Wednesday’s broad daylight assault.
Police said the deranged man walked up to the actor and promptly punched him in the face in an unprovoked attack.
“He just walked up to her and punched her in the side of the head for no reason,” said an employee of a nearby building who witnessed the entire incident on surveillance footage. “[Buscemi] I couldn’t see anything. He went straight to the ground and the man kept going.
“[Buscemi] He quickly stood up with a look on his face that said, “What happened?” Then I looked at the man who hit me,” the worker said. “The man yelled something back and kept going.”
He said the Kips Bay area was “full of people like this and the situation is only going to get worse.”
“Everyone has to look over their shoulders now,” he added. “And no one with the power to do anything is going to stop what’s happening.”
Last week, police released a photo of the Brooklyn-born actor as a suspect wandering the streets.
Buscemi, who was a New York City firefighter before embarking on a film career, is doing well, his agent said.
“Steve Buscemi was assaulted in midtown Manhattan, becoming the latest victim of random acts of violence in the city,” a spokesperson for the actor said in a statement Sunday. “He’s okay and we appreciate everyone’s well wishes, but it’s hard for anyone to believe that something like this could happen while he was walking down the street in New York.” That’s so sad.”
Shockingly, Buscemi, who has starred in hit films such as “Fargo,” “Reservoir Dogs” and “The Big Lebowski,” was cast in the hit HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” when he was randomly spotted in the city. He is the second person to be attacked.
On March 31st, actor Michael Sturberg was hit with a rock by a vagrant while jogging on the Upper East Side.
