Bear-spray attacker charged for dousing crowd, sparking stampede at NYC park Pride party: ‘Vomiting all over'

New York Post

4 days ago

A 23-year-old New Yorker was nabbed for allegedly unleashing bear spray at a massive crowd of Pride revelers inside Washington Square Park, apparently out of fear of being assaulted himself, cops and sources said.
Dominick Sabater, 23, of Harlem, allegedly sprayed the substance – held inside an 8.1 ounce container with an image of a bear on the label – as the crowd in the greenspace swelled to about 1,000 people around 7:50 p.m., authorities and law enforcement sources said.
'At some point, a determination was made not to let anybody else into the park. It was overcrowded,' Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Monday. 'They were using gates to let people leave the park, but nobody was allowed in. At some point, officers are made aware of a disturbance. It appears like a fight is going on.'
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5 Dominick Sabater, 23, allegedly sprayed the substance as the crowd in the greenspace swelled to around 1,000 people, cops said.
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Sabater allegedly used the potent substance as a 'deterrent' to keep the crowd away from him, out of fear that he would be jumped or get involved in a fight, the sources said.
Forty-seven members of the crowd were treated by EMS at the scene, and four others were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition, cops said.
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It wasn't immediately clear how many injuries were due to the repellant, and how many were sustained during the ensuing stampede, but none were expected to be life-threatening.
5 Fifty-one civilians and a dozen cops were hurt in the mayhem.
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Additionally, a dozen police officers who were exposed to the spray were also taken to Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital for treatment, police said.
'Officers rushed to the scene, and they are immediately hit with an orange substance that causes them irritation to their eyes, and some of them actually couldn't breathe,' Kenny said. 'So this resulted in 12 officers being removed to the hospital where they were treated for various injuries to their eyes, their throats, into their lungs, difficulty breathing.'
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A photographer caught up in the mace attack told The Post that 'people were vomiting all over,' adding that it looked like a cop got hit 'pretty hard' with the spray.'
5 Sabater faces multiple charges, including assault and reckless endangerment, cops said.
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Another shutterbug said the spray was scary, 'because I didn't know what it was,' adding that 'people were having asthma attacks.'
'My mind went chemical attack,' he said.
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Sabater was arrested at the scene and charged with assault, reckless endangerment, obstruction of governmental administration, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of a noxious material, police said. His arraignment was pending Monday afternoon.
5 Sabater's arraignment was pending Monday afternoon.
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He has one prior arrest for an assault on Oct.19, 2021, in which he allegedly reached through a driver's window and bashed him in the right eye with a cellphone on East 14th Street near Third Avenue, cops said.
Sabater appeared to be a stranger to the victim, and the attack appeared unprovoked.
The circumstances around his release were not immediately clear.
5 Sabater has one prior arrest for assault from 2021, cops said.
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The mayhem surrounding the Pride festivities continued more than two hours later, where an innocent 17-year-old girl was hurt in a burst of gunfire that left another teen clinging to life just steps from the historic Stonewall Inn where revelers gathered after the Big Apple's Pride Parade.
A third teen girl was also slashed in the mayhem, cops said.