A woman jogging—and pushing her eight-month-old baby in a stroller—was attacked in Fort Tryon Park earlier today. Fortunately, she was able to fight off the man by beating him with a bike pump.
Just after 9 a.m., Mary Jane Jarman, 33, was in Fort Tryon Park, near the Henry Hudson Parkway and 190th Street, when a man attacked her with a broken bottle. Jarman told DNAinfo that the man was saying, "Come here, come here," but she ran and made "it about 100 yards down the path before he grabbed her in a bear hug and took her down to the ground, knocking over the stroller in the process."
He apparently put her in a headlock but during the struggle, Jarman managed to reach for her bicycle pump, which was attached to the stroller, and beat him on the head with it. The suspect, who was bleeding, fled but left his hat and sunglasses.
Jarman said of her baby son, "I was protecting him with my life," and didn't think the man wanted to steal anything, "His sole intent was to hurt me." When he fled, he apparently said in broken English, "I'm really sorry, I'm sick."
Police describe the attacker as being 25-30 years old, 5'9" and 160 pounds, and wearing a blue thermal shirt and blue jeans. The investigation is ongoing.
