Couple trampled by illegal vendors in SoHo after NYPD raid
SOHO, Manhattan (WABC) -- Terrifying moments were caught on camera in SoHo when a group of illegal street vendors trampled a couple from Long Island as they ran from police.
Rosalyn Landsman said she and her husband Marty were walking to the subway last Wednesday afternoon when -- out of nowhere -- they were knocked to the ground by the vendors.
The mother and grandmother from Roslyn Heights was celebrating her 75th birthday. The married couple of 45 years was holding hands while walking on Canal Street.
Landsman said she hit her head on the sidewalk and police told her that three people stepped on her.
She said she doesn't remember anything after she was pushed and spent four days in the hospital with a broken clavicle, broken ribs and stitches in her forehead.
Surveillance video captured her 79-year-old husband getting knocked to the ground before helplessly crawling to reach her.
"I was knocked down and my husband was knocked down and then he went to call to me and he thought I was dead, and I was laying there, but it was very scary," she said.
Doctors say it will take the retired New York City speech and language teacher four to six months to heal.
"Every so often the room starts to spin but what if I would've hit it harder? I do think of that," Landsman said.
The NYPD was doing a raid on illegal vendors who frequently set up shop to sell knock-off merchandise on the popular strip near Lafayette. And that is what sparked the suspects to run.
"I bet that they don't even know what they did," Landsman said.
Landsman is still recovering but says she will not let the ordeal prevent her from coming back to Manhattan.
The five vendors who trampled the couple have not been caught by police.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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