GHOSTBUSTERS actor Rick Moranis Sucker-Punched in Head by black thug in New York City

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004
https://nypost.com/2020/10/02/man-67-punched-in-random-upper-west-side-attack/

Man, 67, punched in random Upper West Side attack
By Amanda Woods
October 2, 2020 | 8:56am

A stranger punched a 67-year-old man in the head this week on the Upper West Side, a disturbing, caught-on-video attack that cops said was unprovoked.

The victim was walking south on Central Park West near West 70th Street around 7:30 a.m. Thursday when a man wearing a black “I Love NY” sweatshirt suddenly slugged him, knocking him to the ground, the surveillance clip shows.

The man went to a local hospital for an evaluation, suffering pain in his head, back and right hip, cops said.

He then reported the attack to cops at the 20th Precinct.

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A stranger punched a 67-year-old man in the head on the Upper West Side.
DCPI


The suspect, who bolted on foot, was still at large Friday morning.
 
Re: Man, 67, punched in random Upper West Side attack

https://abc7ny.com/actor-rick-moranis-sucker-punched-in-head-on-upper-west-side/6712631/

Actor Rick Moranis sucker-punched in head on Upper West Side of Manhattan

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UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Police are searching for the man wanted in a random and violent attack on actor (((Rick Moranis))) on the Upper West Side.

Video shows the moment the man:mad: sucker-punched a 67-year-old actor in the head.

It happened Thursday at 7:24 a.m. on West 70th street near Central Park West.

The attacker continued walking away after throwing the punch.

Moranis hurt his head, back, and hip in the attack and went to the hospital for evaluation.

Moranis may be best known for his work on "Ghostbusters," "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Little Shop of Horrors," among many others.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Moranis

Rick Moranis

330px-Rick_Moranis_at_the_62nd_Academy_Awards.jpg

Moranis in March 1990


Moranis was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Jewish family.[3] He went to elementary school with Geddy Lee, frontman of the rock band Rush.[4]

His Jewish ancestors are of Hungarian extraction, coming from Kolozsvár, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania).
 
Re: Man, 67, punched in random Upper West Side attack

Joobusters!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5BjapvUndQ

Joobusters!
If there's something strange
In your neighborhood
Who you gonna call?
Joobusters!
If there's something weird
And it don't look good
Who you gonna call?
Joobusters!
I ain't 'fraid of no coon
I ain't 'fraid of no coon
 
TNB? Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Star Rick Moranis Sucker-Punched in Head in Random N.Y.C. Attack

***

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Star Rick Moranis Sucker-Punched in Head in Random N.Y.C. Attack

Ale Russian 20 mins ago

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Star Rick Moranis Sucker-Punched in Head in Random N.Y.C. Attack

Actor Rick Moranis was the victim of a random attack Thursday morning, PEOPLE confirms.
NYPD have released video showing Moranis walking down the street in New York City, near his Upper West Side apartment by Central Park, when an unidentified man suddenly sucker-punches him in the head and walks away. An NYPD source confirms to PEOPLE the man seen in the video is Moranis, 67. (New York's local CBS station first reported on his identity.)
The video doesn't appear to show any sign of previous contact between the two as they approached each other from different directions. Footage shows the actor falling to the ground after being punched while the suspect walks away.
According to the CBS report, Moranis went to a local hospital with pain in his head, back and hip. He then went to the 20th NYPD precinct to report the incident.
The NYPD Tips Twitter account released footage of the attack hours later asking for help in identifying the suspect, who was wearing a black "I [Love] NY" hoodie.
VIDEO IN TWEET [attacker in video is BLACK]
��WANTED��for ASSAULT October 1, 2020 at 7:24 AM, on Central Park West in the vicinity of West 70 St Manhattan. @NYPD20PCT.Reward up to $2500��Seen him? Know who he is?��Call 1-800-577-TIPS or��DM us!☎️Calls are CONFIDENTIAL! @YourCityYourCall @NYPDDetectives @nypdchiefofpatrol pic.twitter.com/s06yNPBUBk
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) October 2, 2020
The attack comes as Moranis has slowly stepped back into the spotlight following several decades away. The actor will soon reprise his iconic role in the upcoming Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequel starring Josh Gad as his grown-up son.
He also recently appeared in an ad for Ryan Reynolds' Mint Mobile phone service.
Moranis decided to take a step back from Hollywood a year after his wife, costume designer Ann Belsky, died in February 1991 of breast cancer. The couple shared two children — Rachel and Mitchell.
The actor left public life after her death to focus on being a single father, which he has no regrets over, he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015.
 
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https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/11/14/rick-moranis-attack-suspect-arrested/


Suspect Accused Of Randomly Punching Actor Rick Moranis Arrested
November 14, 2020 at 11:45 pm

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The suspect accused of randomly attacking actor Rick Moranis on the Upper West Side in October has been arrested.

The incident happened on Oct. 1 on Central Park West near West 70th Street.

Security video shows a man walk past Moranis and punch him in the head, knocking the 67-year-old actor to the ground.

MORE — Rick Moranis Attack: Search Continues For Suspect After Police Question Person Of Interest

At the time, Moranis’ management team said he was fine and grateful for everyone’s thoughts and well wishes.

Police released a picture of the suspect and offered a reward.

Thanks to an eagle-eyed sergeant from @NYPDTransit, this suspect has been apprehended and charged. https://t.co/cKtkgzc3vU

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) November 14, 2020

The NYPD says 35-year-old suspect Marquis Ventura was arrested Saturday after an NYPD Transit sergeant spotted him.
 
https://nypost.com/2020/11/15/earlier-victim-recounts-run-in-with-rick-moranis-attacker/

‘I could see he was crazy’ earlier victim alleges of Rick Moranis attack suspect
By Alex Taylor
November 15, 2020 | 12:08am | Updated

Nearly six months before he allegedly knocked Rick Moranis to the ground outside the actor’s Upper West Side apartment, Marquis Ventura was charged with an even more violent, unprovoked attack on a Bronx subway.

“I could see he was crazy,” the victim in that attack, mom and restaurant manager Ashley Davis, told The Post.

“I was telling the police — This guy’s not right. This guy’s got a mental illness.”

Davis, 34, was on a downtown 5 with her husband, Glenn Smith, 34, when Ventura — who’d been walking between train cars — allegedly jumped them, she said.

Ventura is charged with misdemeanor assault in the April 13 attack, according to online court records.

“This dude just randomly started beating the crap out of me and my husband,” she said.

“He pulled a knife on my husband. He punched my face. I thought he broke my eye socket and jaw,” she said.

“This guy was just kicking and hitting him,” she said. “It was crazy. It happened so fast. This guy was just intent on assaulting us.”

She added, “I thought my husband was dying. His shoulder was so badly dislocated it was down to his belly,” she said.

Ventura is counter-claiming that they attacked him, because her husband had picked up the knife that she says Ventura dropped.

Smith is charged with misdemeanor menacing with a weapon, court records show.

Prosecutors have offered to drop charges on both sides, but, “I was like no way,” she said. “I want them to throw the book at this guy.”

Davis has needed psychiatric care after the attack, and can no longer bring herself to set foot in a subway, she said.

“I feel very, very bad for him,” she said of Moranis, adding that she’s a big fan of “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.”

“Neither of us should have to go through what we did.”

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Injuries to Ashley Davis and husband,Glenn Smith
 
https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/suspect-in-custody-in-rick-moranis-assault/

Suspect in custody for Rick Moranis assault
By Joe Marino
November 14, 2020 | 6:08pm | Updated

marquis-ventura-rick-moranis-1.jpg

Marquis Ventura, left, and Rick Moranis
Getty Images


Police on Saturday arrested a homeless, violent ex-con and charged him with randomly slugging actor Rick Moranis last month on the Upper West Side, The Post has learned.

A Transit Bureau sergeant spotted Marquis Ventura, 35, at 96th Street and Broadway and made the arrest.

Images of Ventura’s masked face had been widely publicized in the month since the unprovoked, caught-on-video attack steps from the actor’s Central Park West apartment.

“Thanks to an eagle-eyed sergeant from @NYPDTransit, this suspect has been apprehended and charged,” the NYPD said in a tweet announcing the arrest in the Moranis beating.

“Huh?” an unblinking Ventura responded to a reporter’s question, as detectives led him in handcuffs from the 20th Precinct on the Upper West Side at 8:30 p.m.

He was taken to Central Booking and was expected to be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday.

Ventura has a history of more than a dozen arrests, including five for felonies, the sources said.

His most recent arrest — for allegedly randomly pummeling a straphanger in the West 4th Street subway station — had been just two weeks after the attack on Moranis.

As with Moranis, that more recent victim, a 61-year-old man, was knocked to the ground.

When the victim’s pal tried to intervene, Ventura allegedly chomped down on the pal’s hand, and Ventura fled the station after a woman bystander thwacked him on the head with an umbrella, police said.

The “Ghostbusters” star, 67, had been walking on Central Park West near West 70th street on his way to his nearby apartment when the stranger suddenly slugged him, knocking him to the ground.

Moranis suffered pain in his head, back and right hip as a result of the attack.

The disturbing, unprovoked attack was filmed by sidewalk surveillance cameras, and more images of the masked suspect were captured from

The Moranis attack is now the third open stranger-assault case against Ventura.

He remains charged in the Bronx with misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching a young woman in the face after asking her for money on a No. 5 train on April 13, according to law enforcement sources and public court records.

That victim, who was 23, told cops that Ventura displayed a large knife during the attack.
 
https://nypost.com/2020/11/15/man-accused-of-slugging-rick-moranis-has-history-of-assault/

Man accused of slugging Rick Moranis has history of assaulting strangers
By Elizabeth Rosner, Rachel Green and Kenneth Garger
November 15, 2020 | 9:35pm | Updated

The homeless ex-con accused of sucker-punching actor Rick Moranis has allegedly been randomly attacking strangers in New York City for the past six months, it was revealed Sunday night.

Marquis Ventura, 35, was arraigned on a slew of charges in Manhattan Criminal Court late Sunday, including an assault rap for knocking Moranis to the ground in the Oct. 1 attack on the Upper West Side.

Prosecutors claimed that Ventura has been involved with a number of other unprovoked attacks — including one in lower Manhattan just hours after he allegedly pummeled the “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids” star.

“The defendant has now been charged with five separate assaults occurring over a six-month period in 2020, all which include unprovoked attacks on strangers during a global pandemic,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Kelly Keating said at Ventura’s arraignment.

The same day as the attack on 67-year-old Moranis, Ventura allegedly fled downtown and socked the 45-year-old owner of a Soho liquor store and stole a bottle of champagne, according to police and prosecutors.

When “confronted by the store owner, the defendant threw the bottle at the store owner and then proceeded to repeatedly punch him above the head,” Keating said.

For that incident, Ventura was hit with charges of assault and petit larceny.

In another attack, in August, Ventura allegedly pummeled a 61-year-old customer inside a Soho bodega, prosecutors said.

The victim suffered damaged teeth and lacerations to his hand. Ventura was arraigned for that attack as well on Sunday night.

Ventura, who was arrested Saturday, was remanded by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Nicholas Moyne and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

His attorney, Autumn Levine, told the judge Sunday night that her client suffers from schizophrenia.

“He was in the psych ward in seven different states . . . diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and has been without his medication,” Levine said.

In addition to the three separate assault indictments from Sunday night’s arraignment, Ventura was arrested on Oct. 17 for allegedly assaulting a straphanger in the West Fourth Street subway station.

In that case, he was given a desk- appearance ticket and released.

He is also suspected in an earlier attack on a subway train in The Bronx.
 






Homeless man pleads guilty to randomly attacking Rick Moranis in 2020​



By
Jesse O’Neill


August 9, 2022 10:14pm
Updated









Good Samaritan shot trying to stop robbers at UWS smoke shop



















The homeless man who blindsided “Ghostbusters” actor Rick Moranis in Manhattan nearly two years ago pleaded guilty to a slew of charges that will land him in prison for two years.
Marquis Ventura, 37, admitted on Tuesday to sucker-punching Moranis, now 69, on Central Park West in October of 2020, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Ventura also copped to six other charges in connection with four other unprovoked attacks, the DA’s office said.
On the same day Ventura attacked the actor, he punched the owner of a Soho liquor store and stole a bottle of champagne, officials said.
“The defendant threw the bottle at the store owner and then proceeded to repeatedly punch him above the head,” prosecutors said at his 2020 arraignment.
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Ventura was also accused of beating up a 61-year-old bodega customer in Soho and attacking straphangers in Greenwich Village and The Bronx.

Actor Rick Moranis is known for movies like Ghostbusters and Honey I Shrunk the KidsRick Moranis, of “Honey I Shrunk the Actor” fame, was punched near his Upper West Side apartment on Oct. 1, 2020.Bruce Glikas Footage shows Marquis Ventura attacking Rick Moranis along Central Park West on October 1.Footage shows Marquis Ventura attacking Rick Moranis along Central Park West on October 1.SplashNews.com
He pleaded guilty to assault in the 2nd degree, attempted assault in the 2nd degree, petit larceny, and four counts of assault in the 3rd degree, Manhattan prosecutors said.


Ventura, who has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, according to his lawyer, was set to be sentenced on August 23.
 
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