NEW VIDEO: Brooklyn man beaten with hammer by attacker yelling gay slurs
CROWN HEIGHTS (WABC) -- A man says he was brutally attacked with a hammer in Brooklyn, and says his assailant was yelling gay slurs at the time.
33 year old Mitch Hope says he was returning to his Crown Heights building Monday morning with his coffee, when he saw a man carrying a trash bag over his shoulder walking behind him.
NEW VIDEO OF SUSPECT IN HAMMER ATTACK
He assumed he was doing construction, so he let him inside, not knowing what was about to come next.
"As soon as I walked over to the staircase I got a lump to the back of my head, fell down the stairs and he continuously kept hitting me with the hammer," said Hope.
The vicious attack happened in the lobby of his apartment building on Washington Avenue.
Mitch was struck numerous times and fell down the stairs. He has a slight skull fracture and 5 staples in his head, even more disturbing, the man yelled gay slurs during the beating.
"At that point I felt my life was going to be taken, so I started screaming and fighting back with him, and then by that time he started running out. And the neighbors came out and thankfully helped me and called 911 immediately," said Mitch.
The lobby is equipped with surveillance cameras that captured the incident on video, crucial evidence now being scrutinized by police who stopped by to check in on Mitch. The attack has left him shaken, because it was so random.
"Just out of nowhere. As soon as I came in he hit me on the head. It happened so fast I was disoriented, and then by the time I fell down the stairs and saw the hammer I realized what was happening," he said.
Mitch says the suspect made off with his cell phone but nothing else. He says he has never seen the man before, and up until Monday, has always felt safe in this neighborhood.
