“I’m scared to leave my house,” says Mohammad Hossain, 32, of Sheridan Avenue, who was assaulted inside the fenced porch of his home last night.
Mr Hossain has rowdy neighbors, who play loud music during the day, and hang outside, drinking alcohol, on the portico, during the night; he says there are about 30 people going in-and-out of the residence on any given day.
Yesterday afternoon the same neighbor took a baseball bat and destroyed the side gutter pipe of his home; Mr Hossain went outside to tell the man to cut it out, but the man continued to strike the pipe. After being unable to stop the neighbor, Mr Hossain called the police. An officer responded to the scene, surveyed the damage, and told him to take some pictures, and sue the man in court. Mr Hossain says, no police report was completed.
After police left, the neighbor got out, and yelled at Mr Hossain calling him a, “motherfucking Indian.” The neighbor was not happy with the police being involved in the situation. When night fell Mr Hossain received a call from a friend, who was bringing him his paycheck for the week. The friend drove to his house, and stalled his car outside, waiting for Mr Hossain to come out and pick up the piece of paper.
Mr Hossain stepped outside of his home, at around 10pm on Saturday; went on the sidewalk, and as he was returning home after accepting his check, about 12 men, who were hanging about next door on his neighbor’s porch, surrounded him; one of the men struck him from behind. Mr Hossain fell to the ground, and the group savagely beat him, just steps away from his door. Two of the men had baseball bats in their possession, according to Mr Hossain.
Kamrul Hossain, 18, the brother, called 911. Officers from Paterson Police Department responded quickly, and found Mr Hossain bleeding from the face, the arms, and the legs. An officer took Mr Hossain’s interview, after which he told him to go inside his home.
Mr Hossain and his brother complied. Mr Hossain was not transported to hospital or even offered the option despite his injuries. His brother took him to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for “abrasions”, “general assault”, and “head injuries”.
Police found all 12 men outside on the porch, but made no arrests, says Mr Hossain.
After police left, the men were outside on the porch once again, waiting for Mr Hossain to return so they could attack him again; Mr Hossain’s wife called him while he was returning home from the hospital to inform him the assailants were still outside, and possibly waiting to ambush him upon return.
Mr Hossain called Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman, the 2nd Ward councilman, at around 1:30am on Sunday, who dialed the police; within five minutes, two police vehicles responded to the scene, and waited as Mr Hossain and his brother went inside their home, safely.
The neighborly conflict had been raging on for some time: last month the same man, who had him assaulted, threw a golf ball through Mr Hossain’s second floor window – breaking the glass. Before that, the neighbor, using a baseball bat, destroyed the siding of his home. In all of these cases, Mr Hossain, who is soft-spoken and fearful of violence, did not contact police. Maybe somehow he realized they would do very little.
Mr Hossain says after the incident last night he fears stepping outside of his doors. “My family lives in fear,” says Mr Hossain.
Paterson Times reached out to Paterson Police; however, Heriberto Rodriguez, a detective, when asked about the incident said, “I don’t know nothing about that one.” Mr Rodriguez said he did not have the time to look up the incident, and told our reporter to call the lieutenant tomorrow morning.