WPIX-TV 11 NYC reporter Arthur Chi’en suffered extensive facial fractures after being dragged off a Greenwich Village Halloween Parade float by a marauding clown.
“He was trying to scale the float and he grabbed my arm,” said the Emmy-winning newsman, whose face was shattered in six places when he was pulled off the float.
“I tried to wave him off, but the railing gave way,” Chi’en told the NY Daily News on Wednesday night. “We both fell, but I landed face first in the street.”
Chi’en was expected to have reconstructive surgery 11/4. WPIX aired the 38th annual Halloween Parade for the first time 10/31 as part of its “Shocktober” promotion. But WPIX cameras did not catch the clown as he climbed aboard the float — nor did the police. There have been no arrests.
When the costumed culprit saw the semiconscious newsman laid out in the middle of Sixth Ave., he bolted.
“It was a free-for-all,” Chi’en told the paper, who will have to undergo at least a month of postsurgical recovery. “There are barricades, but everyone is in the street. If any good can come out of this, maybe they can assign a cop to each float.”
