First Avenue Umbrella Assault & Other 19th Precinct Incidents

An umbrella assault happened on the UES and police at the 19th pct. and seeking the public’s health in finding the suspect. Details are as follows:

On Feb. 20, at approximately 4:25 p.m. in front of 1267 First Avenue, a 24-year-old female victim was approached by an unidentified individual who hit her in the back with an umbrella, causing pain. The individual then fled on foot southbound on First Avenue toward 67th Street. The victim refused medical attention at the scene

The address 1267 First Avenue on the northwest corner of East 68th Street. is an eleven-story residential building with Le Gourmet deli the ground floor and across the street from the beloved St. Catherine’s Park. [Casual visitors might not realize it but the NYC Parks Department says, “The layout of the park mimics that of the Santa Maria sopra Minerva church, located in Rome, which houses the remains of St. Catherine. A flagpole represents the altar, play areas are the pews, and even the elephant sprinklers are an adaptation of a sculpture that resides in front of the Roman church.”]

The suspect is described as a tall Black male with short black hair, likely in his 20s or 30s. He was last seen carrying a blue and white umbrella and wore dark shoes, dark colored sweatpants and multiple layers of top garments including a long winter coat on a not cold day, suggests he is homeless.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.

Other Recent Crimes in the 19th Precinct

As the First Avenue umbrella assault occurred during the most recent CompStat period covering the week Tuesday 2/16/2026 through Monday 2/21/2026, it’s an opportune time to review what’s going in 19th Precinct crime. Per usual, things are relatively placid here and there were no rapes or murders.

Across the five other major crime categories, the numbers were Felony Assaults, four; Burglary, four; Grand Larceny, 31; Grand Larceny Auto, 3. As the year is still early, extrapolating trends isn’t especially meaningful: Robbery and Burglary are notably down while Felony Assault and Grand Larceny are up. But again, things are early yet.

According to CompStat 2.0, one of those felony assaults occurred around 1 p.m. near 5th Avenue and East 59th Street on Feb. 21. and another—a strangulation—near First Avenue and East 62nd Street around 1 a.m. on Feb. 18.

Among the misdemeanors the relevant numbers are Petit Larceny, 43; Retail Theft, 34; Misdemeanor Assault, 5. Cops take the reports for incidents such as these which rarely make the news yet which define the “feel” of any given precinct. And in the 19th, crime is dropping modestly, the stats say. Overall, compStat shows there were 269 crime incidents reported in the 19th through Feb. 22, which is a 7.88 percent drop from the 292 reported in the same period a year ago.