Police discovered the person accountable after responding to a harassment name at a homeless shelter.
Steve Buscemi’s alleged attacker has been arrested in New York Metropolis, greater than every week after the actor was punched and injured in a seemingly random act of violence. Police had been looking for 50-year-old Clifton Williams since at the least Monday. After responding to a harassment name at a homeless shelter in Manhattan on Friday afternoon, their probe led to the arrest of Williams for second-degree assault after he was taken into custody for questioning, TMZ reported.
In accordance with the outlet, the police stated Williams had began making a misplaced property police report and confirmed officers his identification after they acknowledged his title and arrested him. Identified for his function in Boardwalk Empire, Buscemi was attacked whereas strolling on Manhattan’s Decrease East Aspect on Could 8.
The 66-year-old actor was captured on surveillance video strolling south on Third Avenue when she regarded as much as greet somebody earlier than crossing the road. Moments later, a person punched Buscemi, police stated. In a further video, the identical man is seen speaking to himself whereas strolling north on Third Avenue simply earlier than he assaults with out provocation.
After being taken to Bellevue Hospital for bruising, swelling, and bleeding in his left eye, Buscemi, who’s a Brooklyn native and a former FDNY firefighter, was launched however declined to do an on-camera interview the next day. Lately, photographs of bruising round Buscemi’s eye surfaced within the media, however he has since launched an announcement letting his followers know he’s doing effectively and is recovering. In accordance with TMZ, Williams has not but been launched and is awaiting costs.
In the course of the course of the previous couple of months, New York has been beset by random acts of violence, with the NYPD investigating many extra assaults in 2024 within the metropolis A report issued by the NYPD on Monday indicated that felony assaults within the metropolis over the past 12 months had been up 15% year-to-date, and misdemeanor assaults had been up about 7% over the identical interval.
“We’re seeing an uptick, and naturally that is scary to all of us, however it doesn’t suggest it is a pattern that is going to proceed,” former NYPD Commissioner Wealthy Esposito informed CBS New York. Moreover, there have been numerous incidents the place celebrities have been publicly attacked within the metropolis as effectively.
Michael Stuhlbarg, who co-starred with Buscemi within the HBO sequence Boardwalk Empire, was attacked at random within the Higher East Aspect in March. Additionally, in 2020, the actor Rick Moranis was attacked randomly on the Higher West Aspect.