Maybe someone can stab him like they did when he pulled his shit in Brooklyn.
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Sharpton Is Stabbed at Bensonhurst Protest
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
www.nyt.comPublished: January 13, 1991
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. .The Rev. Al Sharpton was stabbed in the chest yesterday as he prepared to lead a protest demonstration through the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn with the parents of Yusuf K. Hawkins, the black youth slain there by a white mob 17 months ago.
Police officers assigned to monitor the demonstration immediately seized and subdued a suspect, a white Bensonhurst man with a record of assaults who investigators said was drunk.
Mr. Sharpton was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition. A hospital official said his wound was not life threatening.
After the stabbing at 1:30 P.M., a second man who had been holding the assailant's overcoat was taken into custody for questioning, but the police later said he was not a suspect and that the knife-wielder, whose motives were unknown, had apparently acted alone.
The flamboyant 36-year-old civil rights advocate had been subjected to taunts, threats and racial epithets in leading many earlier protest marches in the predominantly white neighborhood, but had not encountered violence there.
Governor Mario M. Cuomo, Mayor David N. Dinkins and the Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles J. Hynes, who prosecuted the Bensonhurst cases, expressed abhorrence at the attack, urged New Yorkers not to blame the community and appealed for calm.
Mr. Dinkins, after talking with the victim at the hospital, said these were Mr. Sharpton's sentiments as well. But Alton H. Maddox Jr. and C. Vernon Mason, two associates of Mr. Sharpton, disputed this. "The only person who is speaking for Reverend Sharpton is Alton Maddox, and I'm not calling for calm," Mr. Maddox declared.
He and Mr. Mason charged that the police had given Mr. Sharpton inadequate protection and vowed to stage another demonstration in Bensonhurst this afternoon, saying that violence would be met with violence. Attacked Without a Word
Witnesses said the assailant, who had apparently mingled with a crowd of nearly 200 black and white protesters, stepped out of a row of marchers lining up in the schoolyard of Public School 205 and strode toward Mr. Sharpton as he stepped from a car. It was the same yard where the white mob gathered before the murder of Mr. Hawkins.
Without saying a word, the assailant drew a steak knife with a black plastic handle and a five-inch blade from his navy blue Yankees jacket and plunged it downward into Mr. Sharpton's upper left chest.
One witness said Mr. Sharpton raised his arm, slightly deflecting the thrust, which slashed in just under the left clavicle, narrowly missing the lung and major blood vessels.
"It was horrible -- it was terrifying," said Theresa Hearn-Haynes, 36, of Spring, Tex., who was in New York to attend a New Alliance Party convention and had joined the protest. "It happened so fast," she added. "You could tell he was seriously injured." Kicked by Protesters
As Mr. Sharpton fell to the ground bleeding, the assailant dropped the knife, turned and tried to flee. But his path was blocked by a protesters and police officers.
Trying to run, the suspect was tripped by one of the protesters, and others, including Yusuf Hawkins's father, Moses Stewart, began kicking and pummeling him, witnesses said. But the officers quickly pulled protesters away and handcuffed the suspect.
"He ran and fought like crazy," said Deputy Inspector Michael Scagnelli, one of the commanders of the 270 officers on the scene. "He was kicking and punching. He didn't just surrender."
The suspect was identified as Michael Riccardi, 27 years old, of 2045 73d Street in Bensonhurst. A police investigator said he was obviously drunk when he was seized.
Mr. Riccardi was charged last night with attempted murder, criminal possession of a deadly weapon and violating Mr. Sharpton's civil rights. Neighbors near the 73d Street address said last night that a young man had moved into a basement apartment there recently, but they knew nothing about him.
The police said Mr. Riccardi's record included a March 1982 arrest for assault with a weapon, and a March 1985 arrest for assault on a police officer and possession of a weapon. He pleaded guilty to both charges and served prison terms, the captain said. He also was arrested in July 1988 on a criminal mischief charge.
Asked how the assailant could have stabbed Mr. Sharpton in the presence of so many officers, Capt. Steven Davis said: "It's not like a secure area. Among the demonstrators were white demonstrators."
