A person who battered a motorist in a Queens parking house brawl lastly turned himself in to cops this week, giving a weird clarification over his delay in stepping ahead.
Matthew Nicola, 25, was arrested practically two months after he was caught-on-video becoming a member of in as a mother-daughter duo attacked a feminine motorist and flung racial slurs as a result of she stole their “saved” spot on a Ridgewood road on July 6.
“Truthfully, I used to be going by plenty of issues in my life, so I couldn’t actually flip myself in immediately,” Nicola stated exterior Queens Felony Courtroom on Wednesday. “However I took care of it.”
Nicola was seen within the now-viral video raining punches down on Tempo Faculty scholar Jada McPherson, 21, as the driving force tangled with 45-year-old Andrea Dumitru and her daughter Sabrina Starman, 21.
Dumitru and Starman had been each arrested and charged with assault after the assault, however Nicola fled and solely turning himself in to police this week.
“I do really feel dangerous for what I did,” Nicola stated. “So we may simply go away it at that. I don’t wish to be an a–gap.”
The brawl broke out after McPherson tried to park her automobile and got here throughout Dumitru, Starman and Nicola standing in an open spot. McPherson left them, however after being unable to seek out one other she got here again and stated she was going to take it.
However the group refused, and when she acquired out of the automobile to confront them she stated Nicola went “ballistic” and the brawl exploded.
“You’re a monkey, bitch,” Dumitru shouted at one level, with Starman later yelling “You’re a f–king slave bitch. You’re a slave for what it’s value” as they walloped McPherson, who’s black.
McPherson responded by calling Dumitru an “immigrant bitch.”
Nicola was charged with third-degree assault, and a decide granted McPherson an order of safety towards him — which she stated has left her lastly feeling some reduction.
“I’m simply glad that it occurred, actually. Lastly. It’s simply relieving. The state of affairs was traumatic. So it’s simply very relieving that I’ve the order of safety now,” she stated after listening to the information.
Nicola was launched after he was charged, and McPherson — who moved out of the Queens neighborhood the place the assault occurred days later — is afraid he could possibly be a hazard to different girls on her previous block.
“I simply really feel like he ought to mirror on what he did and, you recognize, placing his arms on a feminine and stuff like that,” she stated. “I hope you deliver mild to the state of affairs so it doesn’t occur once more.”
Nicola is due again in courtroom on Oct. 27. Dumitru and Starman — who had been additionally reduce unfastened after their arrests — are due in courtroom on Sept. 9.
The three aren’t associated, however neighbors informed The Put up Nicola got here from a tricky background and was handled as one thing of a nephew by Dumitru, whom he known as his “aunt.”
“It’s not his personal aunt. It’s any individual that form of taken care of him,” stated Bikash Okay., who used to make use of Nicola at a restaurant however fired him as a result of he stated he was a “brief fuse man” and “somewhat on edge on a regular basis.”
Even so, Nicola’s previous boss was shocked to see him partaking within the beatdown.
“I’ve grown up in Ridgewood and I’ve seen fights over parking — that was excessive. They had been appearing silly, his aunt and him,” he unhappy. “I sympathize with the woman that acquired harm. I’m along with her on this. They had been fully out of line.”
McPherson is about to start a brand new semester at Tempo, and is hopeful this remaining arrest will lastly permit her to maneuver on from what become a dreadful summer time.
“It simply caught a lot media consideration and the whole lot,” she stated.
