Police have charged a man in connection with the assault of an 81-year-old woman in Bridgeport in September.
Samuel Bryant, 42, was arrested on Thursday in connection with a warrant charging him with second-degree assault of an elderly person and first-degree reckless endangerment, according to the Bridgeport Police Department. He was taken into custody after officers responded to a call about a suspicious person squatting in a vacant East End residence.
Bryant was held on a $20,000 bond and was expected to be arraigned on Friday. Police have accused him of “repeatedly punching” an 81-year-old woman in the face and body near an East Side intersection on Sept 16.
The woman reported being assaulted near the intersection of Barnum Avenue and Central Avenue on her way home from a church meeting, police said. The woman told police she had driven by a man and woman standing in the street near that intersection and, as she did, she allegedly heard the woman scream, according to police.
The woman said that she did not believe she struck the woman in the street but pulled over to make sure, police said. She alleged that 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, according to police. She suffered injuries to her arm and face.
The elderly woman said the man and the woman then ran away headed east on Barnum Avenue, police said. She told investigators she did not know why the man attacked her. The elderly woman said the woman had been pleading with the man to stop the assault.
On Oct. 16, the police department’s Detective Bureau received information indicating 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.
Investigators then obtained a warrant for Bryant’s arrest. The woman was not charged.