TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE – A teenager was jumped and beaten by a group of teen males at the Target store at the Poughkeepsie Galleria just after noontime on Friday. The incident, described as “frightening” by one witness required the police, fire department, and ambulance service to respond to the scene to treat the victim of the beating.
A witness told Mid-Hudson News that five or six masked black men, possibly teenagers, were in the Target store and approached a teenage male and assaulted him with several punches and kicks. The victim was rendered unconscious and the assailants fled into the parking lot.
First responders from the New Hamburg Fire Department and the EMS service found the 17-year-old victim in a state of unconsciousness but breathing and began to treat him for his injuries. Town police blocked the entrance and began looking for the suspects. A second witness told the reporter that there were five assailants that he saw but was unable to provide information about their direction of travel when they ran out of the store.
Another witness who claims to have been in the store but not near the attack said that customers and store employees were running from the doors leading to the parking lot and heading to the back of the store. While running, the customer said, the people were shouting to others to “stay away from the doors.”
The beaten and bruised victim was conscious by the time EMS personnel prepped him for transport to a Poughkeepsie hospital.
Anyone who witnessed the attack or has information regarding the assault is asked to call the Town of Poughkeepsie police at 845-485-3666.
