PATERSON - The teenager charged in an attack caught on video widely shared on social media turned himself in to police Tuesday.
Kristian Gonzalez, 18, is the alleged attacker in a video showing a teen punching an elderly man in the face on Dec. 7. He's charged with aggravated assault and endangering an injured victim.
Gonzalez, a Paterson resident, has psychological issues, including diagnoses for schizophrenia, obsessive defiant disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, said his attorney, Harley Breite. Gonzalez takes medication daily for those issues.
The video does not contain all the facts, Breite said.
"You clearly see something on the video but we don't know what provoked that incident," he said. "We don't have the entire video. We don't know if that video's been edited."
The facts would come out during the court process, Breite said.
Gonzalez was 17 when the video was taken. He turned 18 in late December. He should be charged as a juvenile, Breite said.
"If the prosecutor's office intends to raise it to an adult level that's their decision and something we will fight all the way," he said.
The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office did not immediately say whether it would try Gonzalez as an adult.
Gonzalez attends Great Falls Academy, a Paterson public school whose mission statement is to "operate as a refuge for disenfranchised high school students who were unsuccessful in reaching required academic/behavior goals in a general education setting."
He has no criminal history, Breite said.
