'I’m frightened to tears’: 92-year-old Manhattan woman shoved by stranger hits head on fire hydrant in bizarre caught-on-video attack

A deranged recidivist sex offender with a stunning 103 prior arrests was busted Tuesday for randomly stiff-arming a 92-year-old Manhattan woman to the sidewalk — with the terrified victim now afraid to step outside.

The victim, speaking inside her studio apartment near Gramercy Park, said she’s too frightened to leave her apartment since the man with a triple-digit rap sheet targeted her last Friday.

“I have been all around the city, I go on my own, I live alone,” said the grey-haired retired city school teacher, fighting off tears. “I never even think in terms I’m going to be assaulted. I’ve felt very safe in the city. And now, forget it. I’m afraid to go out."

Oft-arrested Rashid Brimmage, pictured, released with desk appearance tickets following three separate assault arrests since Feb. 4, was still a free man before he was busted Tuesday, June 16, at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center on Wards Island based on a phoned-in tip to cops.

Oft-arrested Rashid Brimmage, released with desk appearance tickets following three separate assault arrests since Feb. 4, was still a free man before he was busted Tuesday at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center on Wards Island based on a phoned-in tip to cops.

The 31-year-old suspect’s crime career includes arrests for sexual abuse and groping women on the subway, public lewdness, harassment, sex abuse, criminal trespass and criminal possession of marijuana.

On March 9, he punched a man in the face for no reason outside a Harlem pizzeria, cops said. He had previously punched two other people in the face without provocation in separate February incidents, police said. He was also accused of stealing $120 from a 60-year-old woman in the E. 116th St. subway station four months ago.

Word of his arrest Tuesday did little to calm the rattled nerves of the victim, a full six decades older than her attacker.

92-year-old Manhattan woman who was knocked down June 12 by a stranger while walking to the drug store. (Morgan Chittum/New York Daily News)

“I was never scared of anything. Oh, I am scared of that guy,” she told the Daily News. “Look, I’m 92 now. Maybe I’ll live to 100. It’d be nice to live to 100, but I want to be able to enjoy it.”

Brimmage, who was living on the street before his arrest, was wearing the same shorts when taken into custody as he was sporting in the security video of the attack released by cops, sources told The News. The video shows the elderly victim, strolling along Third Ave. to a nearby Duane Reade, her thin hands gripping the shopping cart that she uses as a walking aid.

As she passed the stranger, he reached out and shoved her head — sending her sprawling to the sidewalk, with her head clipping a fire hydrant as the assailant sauntered away.

The victim recounted how her world turned instantly into a very scary place.

“You’re knocking down elderly people and then, do you feel some joy from that?" the victim asked. "Look what’s happened to me. You’ve changed my life. I think I’ve been a happy, liberal person and now you’ve changed, absolutely changed that whole view.”

92-year-old Manhattan woman who was knocked down June 12 by a stranger while walking to the drug store. (Morgan Chittum/New York Daily News)

The victim was a public school teacher in the South Bronx and lower Manhattan until her 1984 retirement. She was treated at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and has bounced back physically — but remains emotionally scarred.

“I went out yesterday just to go to the drug store,” she recalled Tuesday. “I looked behind me, and I hesitated, and I saw somebody and I waited for them to pass. So I cannot go out alone now.”

She turned to her building superintendent in hopes of finding someone who would accompany her on shopping trips for a few dollars. “The super said he’d try to find somebody,” she said.

A deranged recidivist sex offender with a stunning 103 prior arrests was busted for randomly stiff-arming a 92-year-old Manhattan woman to the sidewalk.

She has no intention of making the short trip to the store — or any trip, for that matter — by herself any more.

“There’s a lovely park on 17th St. and Second Ave. and I like to go there,” she said. “Now I can’t walk there, I’m frightened to tears. I’m not going to walk there on my own, and that’s very upsetting.”

She’s hopeful the world can return to some semblance of normalcy if the suspect is convicted and jailed.

“I won’t be fully relieved until he is behind bars though,” she said. "Not just a slap on the wrist.”