A tourist from South America was attacked by a homeless person who hit him in the head with a metal pipe near Manhattan’s Port Authority Midtown Bus Terminal Wednesday.
The 66-year-old man, who is from Columbia, was walking with his family at West 40th Street and 8th Avenue at 11:40 a.m. when Wayne Lawton Welds allegedly approached him from behind and whacked him on the head with the blunt object, police said.
The victim’s daughter scared off Welds, 25, after the unprovoked attack, and the suspect fled into the subway, according to the NYPD.
The tourist was treated for a head laceration at Bellevue Hospital, where he was “conscious and alert,” and expected to recover, according to police.
Welds, who lives in a nearby homeless shelter at the Four Points by Sheraton on West 40th Street, was arrested and charges were pending Wednesday night, cops said.
In March, another homeless man who was being sheltered at the Sheraton was accused of brutally beating a 65-year-old Asian woman in a Hell’s Kitchen hate crime attack.
It’s the latest incident of random violence near Times Square, which has recently been the site of several high profile shootings that injured tourists.
On Sunday, Samuel Poulin, a 21-year-old Marine tourist, was hit by a stray bullet near West 45th Street and Broadway while walking with his family.
In May, a 4-year-old girl and two women from Maine and New Jersey were hit by gunfire in the Crossroads of the World.
Metro | New York Post
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