Man says he was assaulted trying to help woman being attacked at Grand Central
MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- A man is recovering after a random attack at Grand Central, and he says he was physically assaulted after trying to step in to help a woman who was being verbally attacked.
Keith Haygood has a shattered orbital bone, a broken jaw, and a giant gash in the back of his head.
"It's not a way to live, you know," he said. "I'm not liking my city that I grew up here. I'm born and raised."
From his hospital bed, Haygood described the encounter he had early Monday morning while waiting for a 5 train home from work, standing on the mezzanine at Grand Central.
"And I see a woman over there, very attractive, standing by herself, and then all of a sudden this guy appeared, and he started yelling in her face and waving his arms in her face," he said. "And I'm like, 'Bro, what's going on?' He's getting ready to hit her or something."
He says he walked down the stairs to the platform, put himself between the man and the woman, and called 911. He says the man then attacked him while he was talking to dispatchers.
The next thing he knew, he was in an ambulance.
"He has a cranial brain bleed, lacerations up and down his head, fractures all up and down his orbital bones," his sister, Mialana Boutte, said.
Hours later, Boutte got a call that Haygood was at Bellevue after the man knocked him down and kicked him repeatedly in the head.
Officers quickly caught the assailant, who they say has multiple prior arrests, including at least one assault.
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