Horrifying moment a father, 41, trying to protect his daughter, 22, is knocked out by a mob of men and women while they were shopping in a Manhattan bodega
NYPD released a shocking video Thursday showing the moment a father and daughter were set upon by a violent mob in a store in upper Manhattan.
Victor Martinez Medina, 41, a Mexican immigrant who moved to New York 15 years ago, was knocked out cold by the group who were targeting his 22-year-old daughter.
His wife Rosa Santo, 39, watched the savage beating in horror from outside the store before one of the mob stole her phone when she called 911.
Victor Martinez Medina, 41, (pictured on the ground right) was knocked out cold in the attack on himself and his daughter in a Washington Heights bodega on July 7
Police have identified three of the suspects in the vicious one-sided attack that began because of ongoing tensions between Medina's daughter and another woman in the neighborhood.
Officers wish to speak to Devonte Phillips, 21, Tyquan Dupont, 22, and Tyrone Lawrence, 26 as they ask for public assistance in identifying the others seen in the video.
The Medina family were buying food at their local bodega on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 164th St in Washington Heights on July 7 when the group of about have a dozen people rushed the store and began beating them using beer bottles.
'The truth is it all happened very fast,' Medina told the New York Daily News.
'I just started to feel punches all over. They just grabbed me ... everything is fuzzy. (My wife) says I was thrown on the floor, and I don’t even remember that. I just remember them coming and starting to punch and kick me.
'But after that, I don’t remember anything.'
His daughter feared he had been left for dead when the chaos finally ended and he was brought to NYC Health and Hospitals in Harlem.
Medina was left with four loose teeth and black and blue gums but counts himself lucky to not have received greater injuries.
'I saw the video today and I told my wife, "I either have a really hard head or hard body, because I got off lucky",' he said.
Devonte Phillips, 21, Tyquan Dupont, 22, and Tyrone Lawrence, 26 have been identified as suspects in the attack and police hope to identify at least five others
'Like every person who comes to this country, I just hoped to create a better quality of life ... but you don’t think about all the things you will run into. I’m not the first person this has happened to. But I am lucky.'
His daughter was treated for her injuries at the scene.
The video begins with the two women already mid-tussle as Medina tries his best to intervene before the group of other men lunge forward and push him back into a refrigerator.
His daughter is held by the hair by another woman as she is dragged to the other side of the store and Medina helplessly watches on.
Another woman jumps forward and begin to hit his daughter around the head and they are pushed backward out of view of the camera.
Another man suddenly rushes into the store and heads straight for Medina, punching him in the head until he falls to the ground.
Victor Medina was kicked and punched in a savage attack on a Manhattan bodega
The group was targeting his daughter who can be seen being held here in the orange skirt
At one point on the attack, Medina watches on helplessly as his daughter is dragged aside before another man rushed into the store and begins punching him to the ground
It then shows Medina's daughter being dragged back into the frame where the woman holding her opens the refrigerator door and begins smashing beer bottles over her back.
The father and daughter and pushed back behind the counter in the bodega as they tried to escape and they group keeps throwing punches.
Medina is said to have been knocked unconscious and then kicked repeatedly.
The final clip shows a concerned Santos nervously make her way into the door before her phone is whipped out of her hand.
Some of the men in the group are seen recording the attack on their phones.
Later in the video, one of the women attackers takes beer bottles from the refrigerator and begins smashing them over Medina's daughter's back as she tried to escape
Medina and his daughter, whose faces are blurred here in this picture, were set upon because of ongoing tensions between the daughter and another woman in the neighborhood
His wife Rosa Santo, 39, is seen entering the store here before her phone is stolen
NYPD on Thursday released images of eight suspects and witnesses to the attack, three of whom they have already identified.
All three identified suspects have prior arrests in the last 18 months, according the Daily News.
Dupont was arrested for petit larceny, two counts of criminal possession of stolen property and grand larceny.
Lawrence was arrested for drug possession and aggravated harassment and Phillips on narcotics charges
Police have released images of six further people they wish to speak to
The group were all seen on surveillance video footage of the attack
Only three have been identified so far as the NYPD ask for public assistance
Santos was also left in shock after the attack on her husband just blocks from their home and is now concerned about how her step-daughter will cope knowing the attackers are still at large.
'I was in shock. I thought they had killed him. He was covered in blood. There was broken glass everywhere. Oh Lord, Holy Spirit, I was worried they were going to come back,' she said.
'People started rushing in and I saw the whole bodega filled up with them. I was just thinking, "What’s going to happen? My husband is inside." I was shocked.
'We don’t even know them. They could have killed my husband. I’m taking care of him how, because he’s afraid to leave the house.'
No arrests have been made.
Horrifying moment a father, 41, trying to protect his daughter, 22, is knocked out by a mob of men and women while they were shopping in a Manhattan bodega
![Horrifying moment a father, 41, trying to protect his daughter, 22, is knocked out by a mob of men and women while they were shopping in a Manhattan bodega]()
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