Exclusive: Victim of 76 Gas Station Violent Assault Speaks to Rockland Daily

By Y.M. Lowy

Rockland Daily spoke with the victim of the assault at the 76 gas station on Route 59 two days ago.

The victim said they were standing next to a red truck belonging to a friend, the suspects vehicle was at the pump with no one around. He and a friend, waiting for a pump, looked inside and saw an empty driver’s seat, then turned away. That’s when the suspect ran up, yelling and accusing them of looking at his passenger, even though they had only glanced inside. His anger came out of nowhere.

“We tried to de-escalate and apologized, but the more we said sorry, the angrier he got,” the victim said. “Then he just swung. Nobody was doing anything aggressive. The whole thing lasted maybe a minute.”

The punch hit hard. “I didn’t realize how bad it was until I saw the video. I almost fell to the ground.”

The officer on scene asked the victim what they wanted to do. They said they wanted to press charges, but the suspect wasn’t arrested at the scene. Chaverim arrived right after, and the suspect was still yelling and following him to his car. “I felt much safer when they arrived. If they hadn’t come, he would have followed the car we were in,” the man who was attacked said.

The victim went to the hospital for scans to check the head injury, because the punch was severe enough to require medical attention. “Because he was released before I got checked, they didn’t arrest him on the spot,” they noted. Police later located and arrested the suspect.