Crowbar-Wielding Attacker Smashes Windows of Roni-Sue’s Chocolates on Forsyth Street [VIDEO]

Earlier this week, we reported on the dangerous conditions plaguing Forsyth Street amidst the city’s work on the subway system.

The MTA is currently swapping out the ventilation plant fifteen feet beneath the roadbed along the eastern perimeter of Sara D. Roosevelt Park. Originally built in 1962, this section of the subway was identified as the eighth-highest priority level for equipment replacement. Construction of the new Emergency Ventilation Plant is a major endeavor with a tentative completion date of August 2022.

As previously reported, the requisite staging area for the project has become a dead zone of sorts.

Indeed, contractors constructed a “tunnel” barricade running the length of the block between Delancey and Rivington. And with it, the shade factor. Neighbors report an influx of every illicit activity in the book – people using it as a toilet, for sex, shooting up, selling drugs, sleeping in doorways, and now, targeting residents for attack.

For instance, there were reportedly two separate incidents on August 4 – residents were chased by a man on a bike who tried to run them down; the same attacker then smashed the windows of Roni-Sue’s Chocolates with what appears to be a crowbar.

A tipster sent along this surveillance video illustrating how bad it is. Here we see the aggressor, weapon in hand, smashing the door of 148 Forsyth, then turning to the chocolate shop.

In the meantime, Forsyth Street denizens allege that the MTA has no security plan in place for the remainder of work, which is slated to last at least another three years. They blast the agency’s slow response time to addressing the problem, as well as the attempted solution. Solar-powered lights attached to the fence, which were all stolen pretty quickly.

We’ll keep you posted…