{"id":377509,"date":"2026-10-20T02:02:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/377509\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T02:02:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:02:47","slug":"masked-trio-robs-female-cyclist-who-fights-back-with-metal-water-bottle-in-unprovoked-central-park-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/377509\/","title":{"rendered":"Masked trio robs female cyclist — who fights back with metal water bottle — in unprovoked Central Park violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

A masked trio pummeled a cyclist in the head before stealing her backpack inside Central Park late Sunday \u2014 and the brave New Yorker fought off the muggers with her metal water bottle. <\/p>\n

The violent strangers launched their attack around 9:45 p.m as Katherine Marroquin, 32, of the Bronx, biked through the iconic greenspace on her way home from her Upper West Side maintenance worker job \u2014 her routine for the past year because she feared taking the train.<\/p>\n

Marroquin stopped to pick up her AirPods she\u2019d dropped along the running path at East 90th Street and the East Drive when the masked menaces cornered her, demanded everything she had and repeatedly hit her on the head, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI grabbed myself to the bike and I covered my head because they were hitting me hard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"AKatherine Marroquin, 32, was biking home to the Bronx when the violent trio attacked her along a path at East 90th Street and the East Drive. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n

The goons snatched her phone from the front of her bike and tossed it into the lake, Marroquin recalled.<\/p>\n

With Marroquin still on the bike and wearing a backpack, the trio grabbed her by the bag and started to tear through her belongings while continuing to hit and kick her, she said. <\/p>\n

In a twist of fate that spared Marroquin from more serious injury, her Stanley water tumbler fell out of her bag, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw the cup, the first thing I did was like, \u2018Well, they\u2019re gonna kill me,\u2019 so I grabbed the cup and I just randomly hit everywhere,\u201d Marroquin said.<\/p>\n

All three attackers \u2014 who had not been caught by Monday \u2014 then fled on foot toward Fifth Avenue, police said. Cops believe all three suspects to be in their early twenties.<\/p>\n

Despite losing her phone, her wallet that held $80, credit cards and Beats headphones, Marroquin said her use of the metal tumbler was the only reason the vicious crew didn\u2019t \u201csteal everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PoliceThe victim said she used her water tumbler to fight off the callous crew. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thankful that I am OK,\u201d she said, adding that some victims of similar crimes \u201cget hit in the head and never wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Marroquin was bruised and battered, she declined medical attention when police arrived at the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to get home because my mom was worried, everybody was worried,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said she woke up with several purple marks to her face and hands Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is hurting, I\u2019m sore everywhere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite her pain and an offer from her boss to take the day off, Marroquin was back at work Monday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still going to bike,\u201d Marroquin said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m not safe on the train either. That\u2019s one of the reasons I stopped taking the train.\u201d<\/p>\n

The born-and-raised New Yorker said she has been biking for a year to avoid what she deems as an unsafe train ride from Manhattan to the Bronx.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was always a safe place,\u201d she said, adding that she thinks the city needs to take a tougher approach towards criminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like they deserve consequences, not just, \u2018Oh yeah, one ticket and that\u2019s it.\u2019 Then they\u2019re gonna keep doing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A masked trio pummeled a cyclist in the head before stealing her backpack inside Central Park late Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,4709,303,57,11183,9,24,63,129,131,130,466,58],"class_list":["post-377509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-central-park","tag-crime","tag-metro","tag-mugging","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-upper-east-side","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}