New Jersey nurse who works with cancer patients ‘brain dead’ after mugger shoved her in Times Square

A New Jersey nurse who works with cancer patients is ‘brain dead’ – her family says -after being sent crashing into the sidewalk by a fleeing homeless man suspected in two robberies within two hours near Times Square in the crime-riddled city.

Maria Ambrocio, 58, oncology nurse from Bayonne who has was preparing to see her family for the first time since the pandemic began, was instead fighting for her life at Bellevue Hospital. 

 ‘This is the first time we are seeing her since COVID and this is how we see her? It’s overwhelmingly sad,’ said a female cousin who said they were all set to reunite over the holiday season. 

Ambrocio’s younger brother, Carlito Spa Maria, said that ‘she doesn’t have much time,’ her blood pressure is dropping and she is ‘brain dead.’  

The senseless tragedy comes as the city’s crime rate continues to soar, with many blaming the violence on a court system that has gone soft on criminals.  

Maria Ambrocio, 58, was walking through Times Square Friday afternoon. She had just been to the Phillippines Consulate in Midtown Manhattan and was headed home after lunch

At around that time, 26-year-old Jermaine Foster allegedly took a 29-year-old woman’s phone at nearby West 41st Street and Broadway

Ambrocio was making her way through the Crossroads of the World after stopping at the Philippines Consulate in Midtown when Jermaine Foster bowled her over while allegedly fleeing the scene of a crime.

Foster, 26, swiped a 29-year-old woman’s phone at nearby West 41st Street and Broadway, police said. As Foster fled, he knocked down Ambrocio, who suffered head trauma, according to the New York Post.  

The homeless man had committed another crime an hour and a half earlier when he forced himself into a woman’s apartment on Sixth Avenue and 38th Street, police said.     

Ambrocio is an oncology nurse from Bayonne, New Jersey who family members say hadn’t seen her throughout the entirety of the pandemic

There have been 15,787 felony assaults like the one Foster is charged with to date in 2021

The victim claims she heard someone ringing all of the buzzers at the front door to try and enter the building. She thought it was a delivery person bringing food and let him in.      

‘He busted my door open. He rushed into the apartment,’ she said. ‘He basically was demanding money, like ‘Where’s the money? Where’s the money?’ 

Foster started to break things in the victim’s apartment, before sitting on the couch without saying a word.  

She then grabbed Foster’s phone, which agitated him.    

‘He started screaming ‘I’m an African prince! I’m an African prince!’ ‘ she said.

The woman, who is in her 30s, tried to keep Foster until authorities showed up to the apartment but he ran away.    

‘Honestly speaking, I knew he was on something so I didn’t want to do too much to trigger him,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know what he had on him, if he had a weapon.’

Foster was finally taken into custody by police about a block away from where he crashed into Ambrocio and charged with felony assault and robbery. 

There have been 15,787 felony assaults like the one Foster is charged with to date in New York City 2021, up seven percent from this time last year and up 28 percent going back to 2010. 

Hate crimes are up 99 percent year-to-date, while sex crimes are up as much as 25 percent and grand larceny auto is up 14 percent. 

There have also been shots taken at the court system. A state law last year limited the number of crimes for which judges can impose bail, which critics say has led to a sharp increase in transit crimes.  

Anthonia Egegbara, 29, of Queens, was charged with attempted murder on Tuesday, over surveillance footage which showed her shoving an innocent woman towards the tracks as a train hurtled into Times Square station.

The unprovoked attack comes just three months after Egegbara, who has schizophrenia, was released without bail following an alleged assault on July 5 which left a 40-year-old woman suffering a black eye, broken nose and a knocked-out tooth. 

Horrifying surveillance video shows the moment when Anthonia Egegbara allegedly pushed a fellow commuter into a train at the Times Square subway station on Monday morning

Vidal Javier told Telemundo that he felt ‘helplessness’ when he saw the video of his daughter Lenny, 42 (pictured with her father) being pushed into a subway in Times Square on Monday

Egegbara and Foster were arrested as a crime wave terrorizes New Yorkers, with transit crimes rising by 169 per cent for the week ending October 3, compared to the same period in 2020.

Times Square hasn’t avoided the crime wave, as there’ve been three incidents of gun violence at the crossroads of the world in 2021. A man shot himself in the leg in Times Square subway station Monday in the latest shooting to hit the global tourist hot spot this year. 

In May, three unrelated bystanders were hit by stray bullets in the busy tourist hub after police say a man started shooting indiscriminately during an argument with someone else.

In July, 16-year-old Avon Darden turned himself in and was charged with attempted murder after shooting US Marine Samuel Poulin, 21, in the back. 

Times Square, one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions, sees an estimated 50 million visitors annually. About 330,000 people pass through it daily. 

A total of 48 transit crimes were recorded for the period between September 27 and October 3, compared to just 22 for the same period last year. 

Transit crimes rose 59 percent in the month of September, with 184 recorded so far this year, compared to 116 recorded last year. That’s despite weekday subway ridership levels that remain just half of what they were before the pandemic struck. 

The statistics are sure to make grim reading for New York City officials, who are pushing for workers to return to the office, and for tourists to return to the Big Apple, in a bid to boost its COVID-ravaged finances.   

Felony assault, rape and shootings were all up through October 3 compared to last year

A map showing the New York City boroughs where crime has increased (in red) and decreased (in green) in September 2021 compared to the same month last year