A tourist suffered a fractured skull when he was beaten up after refusing to buy Statue of Liberty tickets, police sources said.
33-year-old Arkansas native William White was near the Staten Island Ferry terminal with his wife Shelly when he was approached by a woman who tried to sell him the passes around 3:30 p.m. Monday.
When the victim declined, career criminal Robert Anderson, 25, came over and slugged him in the face without uttering a word, police sources said.
The man then fell backward and cracked his head on the pavement before the two suspects ran off.
The man was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with a fractured skull and listed in stable condition. He will be kept overnight for observation, sources said.
Investigators believe the suspects were scammers looking to peddle fake tickets, sources said.
Anderson, who is currently on probation for burglary, has 10 prior arrests for crimes like robbery, drugs and petit larceny, sources said. He was identified by the the New York City Parks Dept. Police, which has had several dealings with him in the past, sources said. Both Anderson and the unidentified female scammer are still at large.
“We’re going to crack down on anyone who commits a crime in this city and particularly if there’s any kind of organized effort, we want to get at its root and cut it off,” Mayor de Blasio said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“If there’s something aimed at tourists or aimed at the Staten Island Ferry we will get at it very very aggressively,” he added.
“We obviously deeply appreciate that people come to visit us. We had the highest number of tourists we’ve ever had last year — 58 million plus — and we want to keep it that way.”