A stranger in a \u201cDarth Vader-like mask\u201d repeatedly punched and stabbed a 26-year-old woman in the back in an unprovoked attack inside Brooklyn\u2019s Prospect Park last week, sources said \u2013 leaving the victim \u201cangry\u201d that she has to worry for her safety in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Avery Catherine Lorio \u2013 a dietician originally from Arkansas by way of California \u2014 told cops she was jogging on South Lake Drive near the tennis courts inside the iconic greenspace around 5:15 a.m. on Sept. 17 when the menace approached her, slugged her multiple times and plunged an unknown object into her back, the sources said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did hear screaming in the park from a woman, and so I thought about turning around, but I didn\u2019t. I figured, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s far away enough, I\u2019m fine,\u2019\u201d Lorio told The Post by phone. \u201cBut then I see this guy walking towards me, and then he just gets too close to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Avery Catherine Lorio was repeatedly knifed by a masked stranger during a morning run in Prospect Park. Courtesy of Avery Catherine Lorio<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it could have been a girl, I actually don\u2019t know. But it was a Darth Vader-like mask all black, and he just started hitting me,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a few punches, I told him to \u2018F\u2013k off, leave me alone,\u2019 and he just ran away,\u201d Lorio said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The attacker, who was wearing a face mask, black hoodie and black pants, fled after the random ambush, according to the sources.<\/p>\n
Aerial sunset landscape of Prospect Park in fall with the Brooklyn Manhattan skyline, New York City. Andrew \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Lorio didn\u2019t realize she was stabbed until she noticed some blood and found the puncture wound, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She went on her own to SUNY Downstate Medical Center \u2014 where she had been working as a dietician for about a week \u2014 and was treated for her injury, the sources said.<\/p>\n
Lorio tried to report the attack to cops the next day, but cops needed her discharge papers to pursue the investigation \u2013 which she initially thought she had lost, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The attacker, who was wearing a face mask, black hoodie and black pants, fled after the random ambush, according to the sources. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n
She ultimately realized she could use her employee access to pull up her chart in the hospital\u2019s system, which showed that she was diagnosed with a \u201cpuncture wound.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that would classify as a stabbing, or show the police that it was a stabbing so that if they were to catch the guy they would charge him harder or just [give them] more an impetus to find him basically.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She walked into the NYPD\u2019s 78th Precinct on Thursday to report the random assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She walked into the NYPD\u2019s 78th Precinct on Thursday to report the random assault.\u00a0 Courtesy of Avery Catherine Lorio<\/p>\n
Lorio \u2014 a Brooklynite for about a year-and-a-half who plans to take on the New York City Marathon in 2026 \u2014 said she lives about 30 minutes from the greenspace and tries to make it there for a run at least once a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The attack has forced Lorio, who also works at New York Common Pantry as a public health nutritionist, to alter her schedule, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve kind of adjusted my routine so I\u2019m running in the afternoon, in the middle of the day, right after work, instead of running when it\u2019s still dark outside\u2026. which, you know, kind of makes me angry, that I feel unsafe,\u201d Lorio said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople shouldn\u2019t go around hitting other people or stabbing other people,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
No arrests had been made in connection to the attack by Friday, but Lorio said the NYPD investigators have been \u201creally great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s hard because we don\u2019t know what he looks like, or she,\u201d Lorio said. \u201cWe know they had the mask, but we don\u2019t have a good physical description.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope he gets caught so this doesn\u2019t happen again,\u201d she added. \u201cI still want to be able to run at 5 in the morning if I want to. I want to be able to live my life the way I want to. I guess that\u2019s my hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stranger in a \u201cDarth Vader-like mask\u201d repeatedly punched and stabbed a 26-year-old woman in the back in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":257032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5257,73151,8626,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-257031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nypd","17":"tag-prospect-park","18":"tag-stabbings","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115272702167442727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}