Two Teens Charged with Assaulting Former NY Governor David Paterson and His Stepson
Two teenage boys are facing charges of second-degree and third-degree gang assault after authorities say they attacked former New York Governor David A. Paterson and his stepson over the weekend.
According to The New York Times, the suspects, ages 12 and 13, turned themselves in to the police with their parents following the violent incident. A third minor also went to the police but was not charged.
Authorities stated that the former governor's 20-year-old stepson was walking the family dog around 7:45 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side when he noticed some of the attackers climbing a building's fire escape.
Paterson’s stepson, Anthony Sliwa, reportedly ordered the individuals to come down and threatened to call the police. At that point, the group descended from the fire escape. Sliwa “got into it with one of them, and that was kind of the end of it,” the former governor said during a press conference on Saturday after his release from NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Sliwa returned home safely with the dog, but when he later left the house with his stepfather, they reencountered the same group. An argument ensued, and according to Paterson, two adults in the group became involved and instigated the assault.
Paterson, who is legally blind, said he was punched in the shoulder and struck multiple times in the face. His stepson was knocked to the ground and suffered a cut to his lip that required stitches.
Paterson served as New York's first Black governor from 2008 to 2010.
