An unhinged Queens man with a violent past was finally behind bars Saturday after he attacked a 3-year-old girl sitting in a wagon, leaving her bloodied and bruised.
Christopher Elder, 31, accosted the child’s grandmother as she tossed out trash in Flushing, according to the NYPD.
The terrifying incident unfolded about 6:20 a.m. Friday at 45th Avenue and Robinson Street, when Elder began shouting at the woman, Maria Zamora, 48, who doesn’t speak English.
He then turned his sights on Zamora’s granddaughter Sophia.
Elder allegedly grabbed and shook the wagon Sophia was riding in, holding it with both hands and kicking it into the street, according to a criminal complaint.
The girl hit the ground, suffering a cut to her head, authorities said. She was taken to Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where she received five stitches, the complaint says.
Gabriel Zamora, Sophia’s uncle, said Saturday Sophia told him “Someone hit me. Someone kicked me.”
”Now she’s very scared. She didn’t want to come home yesterday,” Zamora told The Post.
He said she liked to ride in the little blue wagon, which was outside the family’s home Saturday.
Sitting inside was a brown paper bag Zamora said that Elder left behind. It contained two cups of instant ramen noodles, one of them open.
It was the second time in four months Elder was accused of going after a child.
On Dec. 11, he allegedly attacked a 36-year-old mom and her 9-year-old daughter in Flushing, punching each of them in the head, according to police sources.
The mom said Saturday that Elder came at them as they walked on Kissena Boulevard, launching a glass bottle, punching her in the face and back and hitting her daughter in the face.
“We just dropped to the floor. I don’t know at what point we fell, I don’t know if I lost consciousness, but we fell and he just continued to hit us. Nobody stopped him,” said the mom who didn’t want to be identified.
Elder was arrested on assault and harassment charges. Bail was not set in the case, the Queens District Attorney’s office said.
The mom said the latest incident left her shaken.
“I’m just sick and tired of these politicians that just keep passing on this issue to the next political person, these laws are not changing and they’re not protecting us at all. These people cannot be out on the street,” she said.
The same day he attacked the mom, he was accused of hitting a 66-year-old man in the face.
The attack was “very fast,” the man’s wife told The Post.
“It’s horrible that this continues to happen with this same person. I really am shocked,” the wife, who declined to give her name, said of Elder’s latest attack.
It was not clear if bail was set in those cases, but Elder was out on the street in February. He is accused of hitting a 30-year-old man in the head, with a glass bottle, at a Queens U-Haul location on Feb. 25, cops said.
Even Elder’s friend’s weren’t safe from his wrath.
In August 2020, a pal came to Elder’s home and asked him to come and look at something on his phone, sources said.
That’s when Elder allegedly came down and stabbed his friend in the back of the neck, sources said.
He was accused of stabbing a friend in the back of the neck on Aug. 21, 2020, after the pal went to Elder’s home and asked him to come down and look at something on his phone, sources said.
In total, Elder had been arrested eight times, police said.
A police source with more than two decades on the job said he has seen plenty of cases like Elder’s.
“Some of these people aren’t fit to stand at arraignment. They’re cuckoo birds,” the source said.
Their public defenders get their clients out on supervised release, the source added.
“If you go to court, and you’re wearing a hospital gown with no shoes and you smell like s–t, you’re clearly crazy. How can you release that person back out onto the street? But that’s what they do,” the source said.
After the latest attack, Elder was caught Friday at 45th Avenue and Kissena Boulevard, and then taken to Elmhurst Hospital for evaluation.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Stephen Antignani sent Elder to jail without bail Saturday after he was arraigned on charges of assault, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment. He is due in court March 28.
He was also charged in the Feb. 25 assault, and with criminal contempt and criminal mischief in connection with violating an order of protection Friday at the same building where the Zamoras live, according to court papers.
At about 6 a.m. Friday, Elder was banging on a second-floor apartment door where his uncle, Tyrick Elder, was staying and kicking it so hard it fell off its hinges, according to the complaint.
Elder had an order of protection against his nephew, the complaint said.
Neighbor Maria Pena Fiel said that she saw the Elder knocking on the door and screaming something in English that she didn’t understand.
A worker at the nearby Indo-Pak. Spanish Grocery on 45th Avenue said Elder was in the store earlier this month asking for a matchbook.
“He never stopped talking. He looks completely like mentally disturbed,” the worker said.
Additional reporting by Rich Calder, Kevin Downs, Griffin Kelly and Isabel Vincent