Family says victims young son witnessed the accident and his being “a brave young man”
Two 12-year-old boys have been arrested for critically injuring a woman when they tossed a shopping cart off a fourth-floor walkway of an East Harlem mall, police sources said.
Marion Salmon Hedges, 47, of the Upper West Side, was hit in the head by the hurtling cart about 5:45 p.m. Sunday, and is in critical condition at Harlem Hospital.
“It’s in God’s hands,” the victim’s father-in-law, Michael Hedges, said through tears Monday.
Marion Salmon Hedges was with her young son when the shopping cart dropped out of nowhere.
“He’s a brave young man,” Michael Hedges said of his grandson. “He’s holding up well.”
“You see her laying there, unconscious in the bed, with 50,000 tubes in her,” he added. “She has absolutely no recognition, not even a glimmer of anything.”
The two hooligans intentionally tossed the cart while horsing around on the balcony that connects a Target store to a parking garage near E. 116th St. and Pleasant Ave, police said.
The boys were not aiming for the woman.
They were picked up on a tip and brought into the precinct where they were arrested about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, sources said. They are charged with assault, weapons possession and juvenile delinquency.
“I’m beyond shocked,” Michael Hedges said about the boys’ young ages. “They should throw the book at them.”
bpaddock@nydailynews.com
