A registered sex offender was busted in the attack of an elderly homeless man in the lobby of an Upper West Side bank this week, authorities said.
Shane Long, 46, of Farmingdale, Nassau County, was arrested at West 72nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue Thursday – 10 days after he targeted the 75-year-old victim as he wandered into a Capital One vestibule at the same intersection, cops said.
Video released by the NYPD earlier this week shows the victim entering the lobby around 2:50 a.m. Dec. 20.
Long follows behind him and slugs him on the side of the head without any apparent provocation, according to cops and the footage.
Long then kicks him in the face while he’s down, appears to say something as he stands over him and stomps on his face before fleeing, the video shows.
The victim was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside with a cut on his eye, cops said.
Long was hit with an assault charge in connection to the attack, cops said.
He is listed is a Level 3 sex offender – the most dangerous designation — in connection to a December 1994 sodomy and rape conviction in upstate Ulster County, records show.
The victims in that case were 12- and 13-year-old girls, according to the records.
Meanwhile, in another unprovoked attack, a 41-year-old mom was slashed in the stomach as she walked with her two kids at 45th Street and Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park around 6:30 p.m. Monday, cops said.
The slasher fled south on Seventh Avenue after the attack, and is shown on surveillance footage hopping a turnstile at a subway station.
The victim was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in stable condition with a minor laceration.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams — who is set to take the reins from Mayor Bill de Blasio after the ball drops in Times Square at midnight — will be tasked with taming a citywide surge in crime.
Felony assaults, specifically, are up 9.6 percent this year through Dec. 26 – 22,486 compared to 20,523 during that period in 2020.
A total of 20,572 felony assaults were reported in the Big Apple throughout all of 2020, and a total of 20,698 in 2019.