Video shows Bronx 11-year-old brutally beaten, puppy kicked in shocking attack
By Jennifer Bisram
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NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — A Bronx mother is calling for justice after a group of teens brutally beat her daughter and kicked her puppy.
The shocking attack was caught on on video.
The video shows an 11-year-old girl out for a walk with her 4-month-old puppy on Waring Avenue near Holland Avenue Monday evening just before 6 p.m. The video shows her being sucker punched and beaten by a group of teens.
“That girl with other friends beat my daughter so bad,” the victim’s mother, Neliana Garcia, said. “Her face was, like, completely in blood. Swelling. I can’t even recognize her.”
At one point one of the attackers even kicked the puppy so hard it went flying.
Good Samaritans stepped in before it could get any worse. A man and a woman driving by got out of their car and intervened.
“This is absolutely horrifying. No child should ever endure such a brutal and senseless attack,” Mayor Eric Adams posted on social media.
Garcia can’t bear to watch video of the attack.
“I feel like, why I didn’t go there at that moment and save her?” Garcia said.
She said her daughter suffers from seizures, and her puppy, Leo, has been helping to prevent them.
“Traumatized,” Garcia said. “She can’t sleep.”
The seizures have returned “every night” since the attack, Garcia said.
Fortunately, Leo wasn’t seriously hurt.
Her daughter is worried the people who attacked her are looking for her.
“She said they are bad people, they will come and catch us. I say no, that’s not gonna happen,” Garcia said.
Garcia said she’s having a difficult time while her daughter recovers.
“See your daughter crying, asking ‘Why me?’ Looking at her face, the bruise, everything – it’s hard,” she said.
So why would anyone want to hurt her daughter? One of the teens had tried to hit her before at a nearby park, Garcia said. The attacker claimed the 11-year-old had given a “mean look” to her little brother.
“I need justice. Please. Today, my daughter, but tomorrow it can be yours, and we need to stop them,” Garcia said.
The attack happened about a half mile from the family’s home. Police say that, so far, no one is in custody.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on X, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
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