Steve Buscemi fans call on New York City cops after star is second Boardwalk Empire cast member to be randomly attacked on the street in a month: ‘NYC is out of control’
Fans of Steve Buscemi have called in the New York City police after the star became the second Broadwalk Empire cast member to be randomly attacked on the street in a month, with reports that “NYC is out of control.”
The 66-year-old Brooklyn resident was taking a lonely walk along Third Avenue near East 27th Street in Kips Bay, in eastern Manhattan, at 11:48 a.m. Wednesday, police said, before he was brutally attacked.
Buscemi was taken to hospital where he was treated for bruising, swelling and bleeding in his left eye after his attacker punched him in the face.
With his attacker still at large, the Hollywood star’s fans have taken to social media to call for stricter police control following the random attack on the ‘national treasure’.
One furious fan wrote: ‘Of all the celebrities who got punched, it shouldn’t have been Steve Buscemi. NYC is out of control.”
Steve Buscemi was attacked on Wednesday while walking down a New York City street as fans called on New York Police to ‘get your shit together’
Police released a surveillance image of the alleged attacker, wearing a dark baseball cap, blue T-shirt, black pants and white sneakers
Another said: “Whoever physically harmed Steve Buscemi should be publicly flogged. The damn nerve. That man is a goddamn national treasure. He must NOT BE HARMED’.
Fellow actor Michael Rapaport also spoke out about the attack, calling Buscemi a “hero of mine” and adding that he was “a former firefighter who worked on the scene on 9/11, a great artist and easily one of the nicest and most generous people you can imagine. Meet’.
Buscemi grew up in New York and was a firefighter in Brooklyn before dropping out in the 1980s to pursue an acting career.
The hero returned to his old firehouse just hours after the September 11 attacks and remained on the grounds of the World Trade Center for days, picking through the rubble.
A worker who was nearby when the attack occurred told the New York Post, “I saw he was with a woman, and then I saw him stumble through the corner of the window and fall backwards.
“He immediately got up and ran in the opposite direction,” they added. “I didn’t see who hit him.”
Now fans across America and the world are demanding ‘New York, get your s*** together’ after Buscemi became the second Boardwalk Empire star to be randomly attacked while in town.
“I don’t know who hit Steve Buscemi, but we’re going to hunt. No respect for a king. New York, come together,” one angry fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Another concerned fan wrote: “Steve Buscemi got caught on his own block. It’s not safe NYC. We should be locked up on an island we’ve never heard of.’
The attack on Buscemi comes after Michael Stuhlbarg was attacked on the streets of New York City earlier this year.
The actor, who played the iconic role of gangster Arnold Rothstein in the show, was running near Central Park when he was attacked by a homeless man wielding a rock.
Stuhlbarg was near East 90th and East Drive on the evening of March 31 when Xavier Israel, 27, threw a rock at his head, hitting him in the neck.
The 55-year-old suffered “minor injuries” and was seen on camera chasing Israel to the Russian Consulate on East 91st Street, where officers stationed outside arrested the attacker.
The actor was offered medical attention at the scene, but he refused treatment, the NYPD said. Israel, who is homeless, was taken into custody and charged with assault.
He had previously been arrested for two violent assaults and a robbery in January 2022, police confirmed at the time.
Michael Stuhlbarg, 55, was apparently randomly approached by a homeless man on the Upper East Side on March 31
Recently, a series of attacks on women have occurred in New York, with Page Six reporting in March that at least 25 women had posted to TikTok in just a few months to say it had happened to them.
These random punch attacks in New York City appeared to be part of a disturbing trend called the knockout game – where strangers punch random strangers in New York City with the intention of “knocking them unconscious.”
On March 20, a 33-year-old woman in New York City was struck in the face when an attacker approached from behind.
The random attack left the victim with minor injuries, but fortunately she did not require medical attention at the scene.
Earlier that same day, a 23-year-old woman was attacked a few blocks away at West 14th Street and Sixth Ave.
The NYPD chief of detectives said at the time that as many as 12 similar incidents had occurred in the past two weeks, with six suspects arrested while others remained at large.
According to the latest crime statistics from the NYPD, the number of crimes recorded increased 3.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, from 6,159 to 6,390.
The number of assaults also increased by 5.5 percent in March compared to last year.