Two young men who beat up a 50-year-old Queens man who objected to their rowdy car meetup fled onto the nearby Whitestone Expressway — but not before they were caught on surveillance cameras, police said Tuesday.
Cops released a photo of each suspect and asked the public’s help identifying them and tracking them down.
Police said the duo, both believed to be between 18 and 24, were among dozens of people who showed up early Sunday near 141st St. and 11th Ave. in Whitestone for a car meetup involving drag racing, donuts and other stunts.
Things quickly got out of hand, police said, with a parked and unoccupied Ford Fusion catching fire about 12:30 a.m. when fireworks were set off near the vehicle.
About 10 mintues later, Blake Ferrer, who lives on the block, was set upon when he yelled for the troublemakers to get away from his home.
“There were over 50 cars right on my block, in all different directions, four to six people getting out of each car to go watch the drag racing and lighting a car on fire,” said the victim’s wife Melissa Ferrer, also 50. “We were just trying to get people to leave and get off our property. We shouldn’t have confronted all these people. They were young and ended up attacking us.”
“I was fighting people off to protect my husband and my house,” added the wife, who was punched in the face but did not require medical treatment. “He has fractures all over his body. One person punched me.”
“Once my husband was down, they knew not to go further or else they would have killed him,” Mellisa Ferrer said. “They scattered and went in the cars.”
Medics rushed the husband, who suffered a broken nose and ribs, to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens in stable condition.
City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) in a post on X blamed “a large group of individuals from outside my district” and said the NYPD was slow to respond.
“These violent street takeovers should be met with maximum force by the police department. We have NEVER had these problems before. Now it’s an epidemic. What changed? We stopped arresting criminals.”
An NYPD spokesperson later said a chief met with Paladino and local residents on Sunday and that patrols will be increased in the neighborhood.
The spokesperson noted it was a busy night in the precinct and cops were responding to multiple high-priority incidents, including a DWI arrest, a hospital transport and a crash with injuries.
The car meetup incident was escalated to a criminal mischief case as more information came in and a patrol supervisor then arrived on scene about 10 minutes later, the spokesperson said.
Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
