Font Size

New York Local News

Featured Slideshows

Celebrities Separated At Birth?

E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Suspect In Brutal Attack On NYC Teacher Arrested

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

Recipient E-mail:*
- Your Name:*
- Your E-mail:*
Add a Message:
Send me a copy of this e-mail.

Type the characters in this picture:*

Click here to refresh with new letters

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

Print Share +

Jun 14, 2008 10:01 am US/Eastern

Suspect In Brutal Attack On NYC Teacher Arrested

Police Say 18-Year-Old Later Stole Victim's Car

Reporting
Hazel Sanchez

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: A mugger punched a 62-year-old woman in the face before snatching her purse near the front gates of a Catholic school in Brooklyn. Police say the 18-year-old suspect was arrested after detectives linked him through other crimes.
CBS

Close

numSlides of totalImages

The shocking video of a young man violently mugging a 62-year-old teacher has outraged many. On Friday night a suspect was in custody. And police say this isn't the first time he's struck.

Police at the 61st Precinct in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn say 18-year-old Eric Ferguson is the young man seen in the surveillance video brutally beating and robbing 62-year-old teacher Patricia McGowan as she arrived for work at Good Shepherd School in Marine Park on Tuesday.

Police also say minutes after the assault Ferguson brazenly returned to steal her car. Now he's under arrest and linked to five other robberies.

"It was shocking. I didn't think anything like this could happen here. And I'm just happy they caught the guy who did it," former student Meghan Hayes told CBS 2 HD.

Added Steve Chirieleison of Marine Park, "We're just happy that everything...she's ok and that it's all done now."

Police say Ferguson was arrested just last week and released on his own recognizance after allegedly stealing a green mini-van, a vehicle that connected him to three other purse snatchings.

McGowan, in a photo obtained by CBS 2 HD, appeared badly battered and bruised from the assault. She, however, was able to identify Ferguson as her attacker through his mug shot, police said.

On Friday morning cops went to Ferguson's grandmother's home on Avenue V to bring him in. His grandmother directed police to Ferguson, who was arrested at a friend's house in the Bronx.

McGowan's worried students like little Angelina Russo are relieved the bad guy was caught.

"I thought he was going to do it to somebody else," Russo said.

Police don't know whether Ferguson has a lawyer, and no telephone number for him was found at the address police provided. He was marched out of the 61st Precinct Friday night without comment.

WCBSTV.com's Most Popular Pages

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.