An Astoria family is breathing a small sigh of relief after police arrested a suspect in the brutal beating of 81-year-old Mayer Behmoiras, who is still in Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan suffering from severe injuries that appear to have caused some brain damage and memory loss.
Police arrested Jesus Fernandez, 23, late Monday, April 13, and he was expected to be charged by the Queens District Attorney sometime on Wednesday afternoon, April 14.
Behmoiras, who has lived in the same apartment building on 47th Street and 36th Avenue in Astoria, was coming home from bingo on April 5, when Fernandez allegedly followed him up to his apartment and hit him in the head while Behmoiras was about to open his door.
Behmoiras dropped to the floor and while the suspect fled with victim’s car keys, Behmoiras’ wife Fran and a slew of neighbors found him lying in a pool of blood outside his door. The victim allegedly drove off with Behmoiras’ 2001 Hyundai, which police recovered when they apprehended the suspect.
“My father would have given him the keys,” Behmoiras’ son Al said on Wednesday, April 14, after praising police from the 114th Precinct for making an arrest in the case. “He didn’t have to jack him like that and throw him down to the ground.”
Behmoiras’ wife and son planned to visit Mayer in the hospital on Wednesday and tell him that the police had arrested a suspect, but they weren’t sure if he would understand.
Al said that doctors believe his father will have to remain in the hospital until at least April 28, and they are continuing to do physical and occupational therapy with him, hoping that he will recover.
“We don’t know how much he is going to get back, but if he’s 80 percent of himself of what he once was, we’d be very grateful,” Al said.
City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn had originally called the Wednesday press conference with the family to distribute photos of the suspect whose image was caught on security cameras, but instead they praised the work of the police
“Any vicious attack on a senior citizen in our city just cannot be tolerated, and anyone who engages in this despicable behavior has got to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Van Bramer, who is friends with the family and grew up with the victim’s son Al.
