Video has emerged of the moment former New York governor David Paterson and his stepson Guardian Angel were punched and kicked in a fight with a gang on the city's Upper East Side.
Three children and two adults were charged with assault after the pair were left bloodied and bruised by youths they had seen trying to climb a fire escape.
The footage shows 20-year-old Anthony Sliwa being repeatedly kicked in the back as he lies helpless on the ground as his nearly blind 70-year-old stepfather tries to fend off the attackers, eventually pushing one of them to the ground.
Sliwa, the natural son of Guardian Angles founder Curtis Sliwa, required five stitches in hospital for a split lip, while Paterson was examined after being punched in the back of the head.
“When they insulted him and started fighting with him, he didn’t back down,” Paterson said of his stepson. “And I think that took a lot of courage.”
David Paterson, the first black governor of New York state, was with his stepson Anthony Sliwa when the pair were punched and kicked in what police said was a “gang attack.”
A restaurant filmed the kicks as the 20-year-old lay helpless on the floor
The state's first black governor said the pair were walking a dog outside the Sliwa apartment building on Friday night when they saw a group of young people trying to climb a fire escape in the building next to a mosque. .
Sliwa warned them they could get hurt and said he would call the police if they didn't stop.
At 8:30 p.m., they encountered the group again outside a McDonalds restaurant near East 97th Street.
Paterson said they argued with the gang before two of them attacked the pair.
“He was holding on to as many other people as he could, but then it became four to one, five to one, six to one, and he was knocked to the ground and stunned by the experience,” he explained.
'I was punched in the face a few times. I got punched in the shoulder.
'But the person who punched me in the shoulder, I threw against the McDonalds window myself.'
When the fight began, two adults who, according to prosecutors, had no connection with the young people, “took responsibility for intervening”.
New York City Housing Authority employees Travor Nurse, 40, and Diamond Minter, 34, were arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
The video, which was apparently filmed from inside the restaurant by a diner, shows Sliwa already on the ground, engaged in a wrestling match with one of the young men.
A $50,000 bond was set when Travor Nurse was arraigned on assault charges Tuesday.
Co-defendant Diamond Minter, 34, was released on supervised release at the same hearing
The three teenagers allegedly involved in the attack
A woman, thought to be Minter, leans over the pair and appears to grab and hold Sliwa's arms while two other boys step on Sliwa's back and deliver a series of running kicks.
One appears to accidentally kick his friend to the ground before spinning around and kicking Sliwa's legs.
Paterson can be seen shoving an attacker as more youngsters advance, throwing one to the ground before the attackers retreat to reveal Sliwa rolling over with blood dripping from his mouth.
Assistant District Attorney Zachary Campbell told the court that Sliwa pushed the nurse against a door before exchanging blows with the nurse and Minter.
The nurse allegedly threw Sliwa to the ground, and two of the three boys, aged 12 and 13 – who have since been charged in Family Court – began kicking and stomping him while Minter allegedly held Sliwa's arms while he struggled to defend himself.
The 20-second video ends before the point at which, the prosecutor claims, the nurse began to walk away, only to turn around and send Paterson to the ground with a punch to the back of the head.
He then threw another punch at Sliwa as the 20-year-old staggered to his feet.
Curtis Silwa, leader of the Guardian Angels vigilante group and Anthony's biological father, said Paterson and his son “stood their ground.”
“David is blind so at first he couldn't see what was going on, so Anthony had to guide him and then get in front of him and take a lot of hits,” he told Dailymail.com
'He said the adults were the ones who hit the hardest.'
The nurse's attorney, Jeff Chabrowe, told the Daily News that Sliwa was the main aggressor and that his client was trying to help the children.
“My client arrived after the fact, when former governor Paterson and Mr. Sliwa were already in confrontation with some youths and were trying to act as peacekeepers when Mr. Sliwa attacked him,” he explained.
He said Paterson boasted in a radio interview of Sliwa's black belt in jiu-jitsu and admitted that Sliwa had slammed one of the young men head-first into a window.
Police released CCTV images of the attackers – three teenagers and an adult man and woman – to help track them down.
Silwa said his son, who was trained in martial arts by the Guardian Angels, told him 'I did what I had to do, dad' when they spoke on Saturday morning.
Two of the youths – aged 12 and 13 – appeared in court on Sunday charged with gang assault after being handed over to police by their parents on Saturday night.
Another teenager turned himself in but was not charged.
Judge Pamela Goldsmith set Nurse's bond at $50,000 and released Minter on supervised release at her hearing Tuesday.
“They sprang into action,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Tuesday.
“They seemed to want to insert themselves into the attack.
'It was like a fight. They continued circling each other. Being knocked down. Rising again.
Nurse and Minter denied the allegations and Chabrowe said his client would prove his innocence.
“I am confident that upon further investigation the DA's office will certainly see this through and we look forward to clearing his name.”
