BRIDGEPORT, CT — Police have arrested a 42-year-old homeless man for repeatedly punching an 81-year-old woman in the face and body near an East Side intersection in September.
On Thursday, patrol officers responded to a call about a suspicious person squatting in a vacant East End residence.
Samuel Bryant, 42, was found inside and was taken into custody on a felony warrant for the assault of the elderly woman two months earlier.
He was charged with Assault in the Second Degree on an Elderly Person and Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree.
His bond was $20,000.
He was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.
On Sept. 16, the 81-year-old woman reported being assaulted near the intersection of Barnum Avenue and Central Avenue on the East Side on her way home from a church meeting.
The victim told police she had driven by a man and woman standing in the street near that intersection.
She said she heard the woman scream when she drove by them.
The victim said she did not believe she struck the woman but pulled over to make sure.
She said the man suddenly opened her driver’s side door and began punching her in the face and body, causing her eyeglasses and her hearing aids to fall off.
The victim said the man and the woman then ran away east on Barnum Avenue.
She said she did not know why the man attacked her.
The victim said the woman had been pleading with the man to stop the assault.
On Oct. 16, the Detective Bureau received information that the same man and woman were once again in the area of Barnum Avenue and Central Avenue.
Patrol officers quickly located the pair and identified them by name.
The Detective Bureau completed the investigation and secured the arrest warrant for Bryant.
The woman who was with Bryant during the assault was not charged.
The victim suffered injuries to her arm and face in the attack.
