New York City police are looking for a woman who pushed a famous 87-year-old singing coach from behind and sent her to the hospital in crisis.
The New York Police Department released a video of the suspect in a dark jacket and long white dress and long rusty hair during the attack on Thursday night.
Police said the suspect approached the victim near West 28th Street and 8th Avenue, pushed him from behind and knocked him down and hit his head. The suspect fled towards 9th Avenue.
The victim’s grandson wrote on Facebook that his grandmother, Barbara Meyer Gastern, “had a traumatic injury to the left side of her brain and was unconscious all the time.”
“If she wakes up, she probably suffers from speech problems and may not be able to move her right side. It’s a very serious injury,” wrote a grandson who identified himself as an AJ.
Gustern is lovingly valued by the New York theater community. She coached the cast of the 2019 Broadway Revival for the musical “Oklahoma!”. New York Times report. She also once coached group Blondie rock singer Debbie Harry.
A friend told the newspaper that Gastern went to the public theater Jaws Pub on Thursday and saw one of her students play.
A group rehearsing a cabaret show in her apartment early in the evening said they found Gastern covered in blood outside her lobby door. After her attack, her cyclist helped bring her back to the building.
Earlier that day, Gasturn shared on Facebook that she felt away from singing. But she was starting to feel better, she wrote, excited about the night’s rehearsal and the next show at Hell’s Kitchen’s Don’t Telmama.
The next post on her page was from Gasturn’s grandson.
“I would ask her not to visit. It’s an ongoing investigation, police don’t want anyone but the family to visit, and none of you want to see her this way. Believe me, “he wrote to her friend.
He added, “It broke inside incomprehensible.”
“I have a hard time understanding and dealing with this world on a daily basis. Frankly, this is beyond my ability,” AJ writes.