One of the victims in a spate of robberies in Central Park fought back when two teens — one armed with a gun — tried to mug him on a walking trail Friday night.
“You don’t have the balls to shoot me,” he told them, recalling the frightening incident to The Post.
“I became the aggressor because I was like ‘You just tried to steal my phone.’”
“I might just be crazy, but I was like, ‘You’re going to shoot me over a phone? You don’t have the balls to pull the trigger,’” said Ashikur Chowdhury.
Chowdhury, who’s 6’2” and weighs more than 200-pounds, had been out walking for much of the day and was headed home to Harlem when the teens tried to grab the 25-year-old’s phone on the darkened trail.
“Any reasonable thug wouldn’t dare attack me, but they couldn’t be older than 16,” he said.
“I was on my phone just looking at the GPS trying to figure out where this bike path was leading…and all of the sudden a hand reaches over and tries to grab my phone,” he recalled.
The victim of an attempted robbery said he stood up against his wanna-be robbers. Aristide Economopoulos
“I clutch it, he fails and then he gets out in front of me and is just staring at me.”
That’s when one of the teenagers pulled out a pistol from his pocket, he said.
“The initial guy takes it from his hand and points it up to my face and says ‘Give me the phone,'” Chowdhury said, adding that the teens were speaking Spanish.
Ashikur Chowdhury said he thought of his mom when the teens pulled a gun on him and demanded his phone. Aristide Economopoulos
He found himself thinking about his mom and friends.
“I thought about her,” he said.
“I thought about my friends, the people I interact with — my siblings, the kids that I work with every day…and I feel lucky and grateful that he didn’t pull the trigger or it was a fake gun.”
Central Park has seen an uptick in robberies so far this year. G.N.Miller/NYPost
Chowdhury, who works as a kindergarten paraprofessional at an Upper East Side school, said his first reaction was to feel for the teens.
“As a teacher, my reaction is kind of to empathize, like, what are you doing? You’re going to risk all of this for a phone?” he recalled.
He decided to make a police report in part because his older brother is an NYPD lieutenant in Brooklyn.
Central Park has iconic views. G.N.Miller/NYPost Map of robberies that have recently occurred at Central Park.
“I just thought he’d be disappointed if something happened to me and I didn’t do something about it,” he said.
“I thought, if it happened to me, it could happen to anyone.”
He said he’s disappointed that crime is on an uptick in the iconic park.
“It’s really tragic that crime is back on the rise, because for a little bit there Central Park was staying out of the headlines, and now it’s getting back in there because it’s getting worse,” he said.
“I think I got lucky,” he said. “I really think I got lucky.”
For the latest metro stories, top headlines, breaking news and more, visit nypost.com/metro/
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Local New York City, NY
Most Popular
Comments / 0