[kellyhound]

June 14th 2008
The cowardly punk who punched a 62-year-old Catholic school teacher in the face and stole her purse was arrested Friday - and promptly linked to six other robberies.

Eric Ferguson, 18, ambushed Patricia McGowan outside the Good Shepherd School in Marine Park, Brooklyn, early Tuesday, cops said. Surveillance video captured the mugger attacking her from behind and pushing her through a metal gate topped with a cross before running off with her bag.

McGowan, who has taught at the school for 43 years, suffered bad bruises on the left side of her face. Her left eye was blackened and bloodshot, and her left cheek was swollen and purple from her eye to her jaw.


The sickening attack triggered a massive search for Ferguson, a juvenile delinquent facing charges for as many as four purse snatchings and two Chinese-food delivery robberies, including one in which the deliveryman was stabbed, police said.

Ferguson, who lives in Sheepshead Bay, was taken into custody at 6:30 a.m. at a friend's house in the Bronx. He was expected to be arraigned early today on charges including robbery, assault, larceny and car theft.

He had been arrested just last week for driving a stolen green minivan, but a Brooklyn judge released him on his own recognizance so his reign of terror - which allegedly started on May 15 with a purse snatching - was allowed to continue.


"I was so scared," said one of his victims, who asked that her name not be printed.

The woman was walking along Avenue U at 6:45 a.m. on June 2 when a man who was following her suddenly reached for her bag, she said.

"He pushed me, and I fell on my face and elbow," the woman said in Russian. "He dragged me with the bag. . . . The bag's strap [broke] and remained with me, and he took the bag."

"I'm afraid to walk down the street now," said the woman, who lost $100 in cash and a credit card that cops said Ferguson later used for a shopping spree. "I don't want to think about him - I want to forget the story like a nightmare."

Ferguson - who spent time at a school for troubled kids in Yonkers - was arrested wearing a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers bought with a credit card stolen from a woman he robbed on May 30, police said.

He confessed to robbing a pair of Chinese-food deliverymen, one of whom he stabbed, on June 9 - the day before he attacked McGowan.

McGowan was opening a gate to the school at 6:40 a.m. when Ferguson hit the startled computer teacher in the face, slamming her through the gate and onto the ground, police said.

As the terrified teacher shielded herself with her hands, Ferguson snatched her purse and ran off, leaving McGowan sitting on the ground, holding her face.

Ferguson stole the teacher's car, a 2000 Toyota Corolla, but ditched it after driving a few blocks, cops said.

The savage attack was apparently the second time Ferguson struck at Good Shepherd. Cops said Friday night he also mugged a 19-year-old woman in the parking lot June 8.

McGowan changed the locks on her Staten Island house, leaving home only to go to the 61st Precinct stationhouse for a lineup.

"She's a wonderful, dedicated teacher," said Good Shepherd Principal Anthony Paparelli. "She's doing well, [but] she's still in a lot of pain," said Msgr. Thomas Brady, who added he expected that McGowan would forgive her attacker. "She's praying for him, I'm sure."

[chris]

what a total piece of trash! Man that just pisses me off.

[ganjaman]

She still forgives him

[Den777]

Thugs are becoming more pussified. Targeting old men and women. Thank godness for retarded criminals.

[luton loyal]

Scum of the earth. Fact.

[güttsfükk]

cant really see the punches due to the way it skips

[JonTx]

why are the thugs such wimps these days; I'm sure he acts like Billy-Bad-Ass but only targets elderly chicks!! I hope he's popular in prison..... I also think his parents should have to pay restitution, they've done such a wonderful job raising the little felon mf- You know, you listen to these black liberals like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and they whine and pis & moan about how "the prisons are filled with young black males". Well, duh- dumbasses, they're committing the crimes!! Here's a novel concept- why don't you black men and women from the civil rights era teach these turds to be responsible fathers and parents?!? Since when did it become acceptable to have "a baby's mama" in your life? What about a stable family unit: Mom's and Dad's??!! Black men are morally & ethically bankrupt and just can't seem to get it done.... and the rest of us are stuck supporting these societal leaches!

[cutler]

what a pussy......kill him

[grannypuncher]

in your face. you got caught!!

[Ironwulv]

See,, thats another arguement for why all states should have conceal carry laws.