WINS-AM New York reports that 20-year-old Gavin Scott was arrested Sunday in last week’s baseball bat beating of Pelagio de la Cruz, which was captured on a video surveillance camera. 52-year-old de la Cruz, a talk host on WESX-AM Salem-Boston, MA, was in the Bronx to visit his children. He remains in critical condition.
Police said de la Cruz was waiting to enter an apartment building on September 14th when a man sneaked up behind him and began hitting him on the head with a baseball bat. That man is apparently still being sought. Scott is suspected of being the accomplice who appears in the video to rifle through de la Cruz’s pockets, taking his wallet and cell phone.
The video of the brutal attack is posted on the WINS website, as well as numerous other places on the Internet. The video released by the NYPD doesn’t show the initial blow that dropped de la Cruz to the ground, but rather the attacker, whose face is clear in the shot, repeatedly swinging the bat at the victim out of sight below the window of the building’s front door. The second man then joins him to help rob the victim.
Scott has been charged with attempted murder, assault, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.
RBR/TVBR observation: The tragedy is that this could happen to anyone. The attack apparently had nothing to do with the victim’s radio show. There’s no indication the attackers knew who he was. They just wanted to beat and rob him – or anyone else who happened along.
