Neither more nor less

Friday night sometime around 10:30 or 11:00 PM , Markey Hayden Bena was beaten by 3 young Hispanic males , one wearing a baseball cap , on the south east corner of the intersection of avenue B and 7th street . Markey lives on the street most of the time and sometimes perhaps drinks too much . Many in the neighborhood have known Markey for a long time . Markey was an easy target .

Markey told us tonight that Friday night on the corner opposite Vazac's horse shoe bar a young Hispanic male jumped him from behind . While attempting to deal with the attack of the one male , 2 more young Hispanic males attacked from behind a parked car .Markey as can be seen from the picture above took a nasty beating .

The attackers hit hard for a short time and then ran . People at Vazacs called police and helped clean up some of Markey's bloody wounds . Vazacs personnel confirm all of this .

According to Markey all 3 males were young and Hispanic ; one wore a baseball cap .

This beating occurred a half hour to an hour before the beatings in TSP . This beating occured a half block from Crusty Row in TSP.

Markey also told us that 4 days later on Tuesday night after attending Lesia Pupshaw's wake he was walking on avenue C sometime around 9:30 PM . A young male yelled out to him "hey man , I beat you the other night ". Markey quickly headed west at the corner of 11th street and avenue C , down 11th street . The young male that had yelled out followed Markey and attacked and beat him again somewhere between avenue B and avenue C .

Markey's description of his attackers is close to the Crusty descriptions of their attackers , the times of the attacks were close and the locations were not far apart . No substantiated connection here we know but it is clear that both cases clearly demonstrate that being homeless can be a dangerous way to live .

Police were on patrol in TSP Monday night , frequently stopping on Crusty Row to talk to and reassure a small group of uneasy Crustys and their friends . No one quite knows what might happen next in TSP . Young Hispanic males with water balloons were reported to have been in the park in the afternoon Monday . Water balloons have been seen in all the recent confrontations between the Crustys and their Hispanic male attackers . At least the police were there in the evening to provide some protection if necessary .

Of course the park was closed on time , at midnight Monday night .The Crustys and their friends left the park at closing time . Those without apartments to go to , ventured into the uncertain reality of a night on the streets of the East Village.

Several proclaimed eye-witnesses to Friday night's attack spoke with us this afternoon ,volunteering blow-by-blow accounts of the attack on Lesia Pupshaw , aged 26 ,who possibly died because of injuries suffered during this brutal attack .The attack appears from witnesses' accounts to have begun with a blow delivered by a bottle hurled at her head from 4 or 5 ft. . Then after Ms. Pupshaw fell to the ground her attackers continued the attack by kicking her and striking her with wooden sticks and perhaps a silver cane .

Ms. Pupshaw did get up after this severe beating and walk away , out of the park toward an apartment on 6th street where she lived with her mother , boyfriend and some other friends .According to one of Ms. Pupshaw's room mates Ms. Pupshaw was again attacked and beaten by the same young Hispanic male park attackers somewhere along 7th street between 2nd and 3rd avenue while on her way home .

Ms. Pupshaw's room mate said that an ambulance was called for Ms. Pupshaw from the apartment and that Ms. Pupshaw was taken to Belleview Hospital . Ms. Pupshaw was not seen by a doctor though because she impatiently left the hospital waiting area and returned to the apartment on 6th street where she later died . According to all witnesses Ms. Pupshaw was severely beaten and injured .

There were also several others that were injured in the TSP attack Friday night . Two males attacked in TSP , both bleeding seriously , were taken to the hospital by ambulance from avenue A .

Today there were rumors in TSP and along avenue A that police had determined that Ms. Pupshaw had died of a drug over dose and not as a result of the severe and bloody beatings that she suffered Friday night . We have heard in a round about way though that this may not be the case and that the Medical Examiner's Office has said that at this time they want to do some more testing to determine the actual cause of death .

It should be noted that according to friends , Ms. Pupshaw had indeed overdosed the day before the Friday night attack . Perhaps some heroin residuals and metabolites remaining in Ms. Pupshaw's tissues and fluids from the day before could possibly have misled some by causing one of the quick preliminary tests to show positive for heroin .We do not know , we only conjecture . We suspect though that the cause of death has not yet been determined .

Crusty witnesses in TSP tonight claimed that 3 of the young Hispanic males that had attacked them Friday night returned to harass them around 9 PM with water balloons and taunts . The 3 light skinned Hispanic males in their mid-to-late teens ,one wearing a Chicago Cubs baseball cap , threw the water balloons , taunted and then ran . The Crustys responded by pursuing the males to avenue D near 4th Street .

A confrontation including a box cutter , a pipe and some bottles evolved on avenue D . The Crustys , outnumbered and in hostile territory controlled by the 3 young Hispanic males and their numerous friends , withdrew and returned to TSP .

As we were listening to witnesses tell us what had happened earlier in TSP , the 3 or 4 Crusty males that had run after the young Hispanic males returned . One of the Crusty warriors had been struck on his head with a bottle that on impact broke . His head was cut in several places but not bleeding seriously . We held a flashlight as pieces of glass were removed from his head by a friend . No one else was hurt .

Crusty witnesses noted Sunday night that there have been 3 confrontations with these same males or their friends in TSP in the last week . One of those confrontations , the one on Friday night , resulted in the injury and hospitalization of a male Crusty and a young woman , not truly a Crusty , being brutally battered on the head and face . Another was tonight's confrontation . The third confrontation occurred near Crusty Row in TSP a few days before the Friday night confrontation and amounted to mostly taunts and threats with some little physical violence occurring .

The Friday night confrontation which began with taunts and threats evolved into serious physical violence . This ultimately violent confrontation was perhaps responsible for the death of a young woman , who with brutal head injuries returned to an apartment on 6th street and sometime later Saturday morning died .

This deceased young woman , reportedly of Ukranian decent , grew up in the East Village and recently had spent much time with the Crustys and others in the park . We do know that she was in her late 20s but we do not yet know her full name . The definite cause of her death is currently being determined by the NYC Medical Examiner's office . That determination should be available within a very few days if not some time Monday .

Another witness , not a Crusty , whom the police did not believe claimed that she had seen the young males responsible for the young woman's injuries late Saturday afternoon in TSP near the 7th street and avenue A entrance . We happen to believe her .