Metro
Unique
February 11, 2023 | 6:52 pm
A longtime City Hall food-cart vendor was smashed multiple times in the legs and back with a tire iron on Saturday — allegedly after a rival enforcer tried to shake him off for $20,000, eyewitnesses said.
Izzad Hassan Sulaiman — a 43-year-old father of three from Queens who has sold hot dogs, kebabs and other fare from a food cart in City Hall Park for more than a decade — posted video of the thug speeding across a public plaza . across the street from the Brooklyn Bridge Walkway at about 8 p.m.
Sulaiman alleged that the man was in a white van with a breakfast cart attached, and nearly slammed into it.
The alleged interloper, identified by police as Felix Noel, then got out of the truck and ran around the plaza like a madman, the video shows.
He waved a yellow tire iron and struck Suleiman at least five times – leaving the seller on the ground screaming in pain while his wife and children looked on in horror.
Noel (62) has been arrested on charges of assault and intimidation, police said. He insisted on getting back to his truck and putting on his Salvation Army cap before being escorted away by police.
The alleged attacker, Felix Noel, 62, was arrested by police for an alleged shakedown attempt. Provided food vendor Izzed Hasan Sulaiman receives medical aid after being attacked with a crowbar for allegedly refusing to pay $20,000 to a shakedown artist. William Farrington
Suleiman, an Egyptian immigrant from Jersey City, alleged that Noel was merely the muscle and the brain behind the attack was a man shaking down food vendors for cash.
She claims the man turned her down for $40,000 in 2018 and recently returned to demand another $20,000 in payment.
“He does this to everyone in town, we know about this guy,” Suleiman alleged through a translator. “Now he wants more money, but this time we’ve worked with him … It’s a busy area, and it makes a lot of money and he wants the area.”
The seller and his family and friends claim they have complained to the police, but the man they likened to a “mafia” and a “gangster” has repeatedly been able to evade the law.
Neither the alleged “leader” nor Noel could be reached for comment.
The purported leader in the video can be seen trying to stop the assailant from using a tire iron, on at least one occasion taking it out of his hand and putting it back in the truck. However, Noel became more enraged as Suleiman and some of his teammates began videotaping the incident with their smartphones – and attacked the vendor anyway, the clip shows.
An NYPD officer with a tire iron used in the violent attack caught on video. William Farrington food-cart veteran Izzad Hasan Sulaiman was admitted to a local hospital hours after his tire-iron was thrashed by thugs of an alleged rival. William Farrington
Hours after the incident, Suleiman’s 12-year-old son Hassan said that his father had been taken to a local hospital and could barely walk due to pain in his back and legs. He was hopeful that his father would be back on his feet in a few days.
Saturday’s attack has been compared to a 2015 Post report about a Jewish kosher-food transporter who alleged he was stopped by a Holy Rollers cart near Rockefeller Center with a stack of sandwiches with brisket or pastrami Was.
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