Man seen stripped, beaten in NYC attack was known gang member with lengthy criminal history: source

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New York City police are still looking for the group of people who stripped and attacked a man in lower Manhattan over the weekend, as a law enforcement source confirmed to Fox News the man was a known gang member with a bevy of prior arrests.

The 26-year-old victim was in the area of Canal and Allen streets around 11:30 a.m. Friday when the group of about a dozen men and women jumped him and took his cell phone, pants, undergarments and shoes, the New York Police Department said. They then used a sharp object to slice him in the head, hands and torso, cops said.

The victim was taken to a local hospital where he is expected to survive.

On Monday, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea released a 50-second video of what he called a "brazen broad-daylight attack." The footage shows the man running away from the group as they catch up to him and begin beating him. 

NYPD RELEASES VIDEO OF ATTACKERS WHO BEAT AND STRIPPED MAN IN CHINATOWN

Police sources told the New York Post the victim lives in Brooklyn and had just returned from Atlanta. The violent crew had reportedly been staking out the nearby bus stop for the man’s arrival.

Police said they fled in several vehicles after the attack.

A law enforcement source confirmed to Fox News that the victim has been linked to the violent Mac Baller Brims gang.

"If the shoe was on the other foot, he'd be a part of that gang," the source said.

According to the Post, he has been arrested at least 43 times in the past, though it wasn’t clear how many of the arrests are now sealed. The source told Fox News the man has a history of larceny arrests, and his most recent arrest was on Dec. 4, 2020, in Brooklyn.

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The source said he also has a history of robbery and turnstile jumping charges and one past arrest for criminal sex act in 2010, when he was accused of forcing himself on a 24-year old female.

The victim, whose name is being withheld, was convicted in 2013 of robbery and attempted robbery, New York State Department of Corrections records show. He served time at Fishkill Correctional Facility from May 2013 to December 2017.