NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Three days after police identified a suspect in last week's unprovoked assault on actor Steve Buscemi in Manhattan's East Side, authorities arrested the man and charged him with second-degree assault.
Police said on Tuesday that the suspect was Clifton Williams, 50, an unhoused man. At 2:20 p.m. on Friday, Williams was apprehended in Midtown.
The 66-year-old star of "Fargo" and "Boardwalk Empire" was assaulted at East 27th Street and Third Avenue in Kips Bay on the morning of Wednesday, May 8.
Images from the NYPD show a man believed to be Williams around the time of the attack.
The photos were actually released last week—before Buscemi's publicist confirmed Sunday that the actor was the unidentified victim in the attack.
"Steve Buscemi was assaulted in Mid-Town Manhattan, another victim of a random act of violence in the city," the actor's publicist said in a statement. "He is ok and appreciates everyone's well wishes."
According to the NYPD, he was punched in the face in front of a building on Third Avenue around 11:45 a.m. The attack was totally unprovoked, police said.
EMS transported him to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where he was in stable condition with bruising, swelling and bleeding to his left eye.
Buscemi isn't the first actor to be randomly attacked on the streets of Manhattan in recent years.
Indeed, Buscemi's "Boardwalk Empire" co-star Michael Stuhlbarg was hit in the back of the neck with a rock while walking in Central Park on March 31. Stuhlbarg chased his attacker, who was taken into custody outside the park.
And in October 2020 on the Upper West Side, "Ghostbusters" actor Rick Moranis, then 67, was punched in the head unprovoked on Central Park West.
The man convicted in that attack was sentenced to two years in prison in August 2022.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
