An 82-year-old man died of injuries he sustained less than a month after an elderly neighbor shoved him to the ground outside their Manhattan building, cops said.
Dean Conover Whetzel was on Hudson St. just around the corner from his W. 10th St. apartment in Greenwich Village when 79-year-old Dana Escoffier knocked him to the pavement around 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, cops said.
Medics rushed the elderly victim in critical condition to Bellevue Hospital, where he lingered for 25 days before dying on Nov. 5, police said.
Escoffier, who plead not guilty to assault following his arrest in October, reacted with astonishment when informed on Monday of the victim’s death.
“He’s dead?“ Escoffier said. “I don’t believe it. I had no idea. I’m just hearing this now. I don’t think my attorney even knows.“
Escoffier declined to comment on the attack, except to say, “He didn’t die because of me.”
Though Escoffier lived in the same building as the victim, he said the two never met prior to the fatal encounter.
The city’s Medical Examiner has reclassified Whetzel’s case as a homicide.
A waiter at a nearby restaurant said he witnessed the attack.
“The man who was pushed fell down to the ground, and the other guy started walking away,“ Ethan Dank, 25, who waits tables at Cowgirl NYC, told The News. “People surrounded the guy on the ground, trying to help.”
“It was very jarring,“ said Dank. “He was lying on the ground. He was squinting, but he was still conscious.”
A friend of Whetzel’s said he was walking his dog, a black terrier named Buddy, who was with him when he died.
“Dean was a wonderful person. It’s terribly sad. He was friends with everyone,” said Bifa Secchini. “Poor Buddy, his dog was with him when it happened.”
Secchini said Whetzel’s remains would be sent back to his home state of Indiana. His dog is being cared for by a friend.
