A man with a history of assaulting kids allegedly attacked a Queens toddler by allegedly flipping the stroller she was sitting in, police said.
Christopher Elder, 31, allegedly accosted a woman who was pushing her toddler granddaughter in a stroller as she tossed out trash in Flushing early Friday, according to the NYPD.
The incident unfolded about 6:20 a.m. at 45th Avenue and Robinson Street when Elder, of Queens, began shouting at the woman, Maria Zamora, 48, who doesn’t speak English.
He then allegedly overturned the stroller carrying the woman’s 2-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, knocking the child to pavement, police said.
Sophia suffered a cut to her head and was taken to Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where she was stitched up.
Elder was later caught nearby at 45th Avenue and Kissena Boulevard, and then taken to Elmhurst Hospital for evaluation.
He is charged with felony assault, reckless endangerment, acting in a manner dangerous to a child, and harassment. He was expected to be arraigned Saturday in Queens Criminal Court.
Sophia was taken to Flushing Hospital Medical Center after the attack.
Sophia’s uncle, Juan Loja, said to NBC that his niece was “very scared.”
Elder has allegedly attacked others before.
Elder has a long rap sheet that includes at least eight prior arrests, many for unprovoked assaults, including a Dec. 11 arrest in Flushing in which he allegedly assaulted a 9-year-old girl by throwing her to the ground, police said.
On Feb. 25, Elder allegedly hit a 30-year-old man in the head with a glass bottle at a U-Haul location off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, cops said.
Following his arrest Friday, he was charged in that incident, too.
Sophia suffered a cut to her head in the attack.
Sophia’s uncle, Juan Loja, told NBC New York, that his niece was “very scared” and had “so much pain in her face.”
He said the family is scared to stay in their home because they’ve seen Elder before, adding someone else who lives in their apartment building already has an order of protection against him. However, that hasn’t stopped him from returning.
*story by The New York Post
