R.Lorenz/NBCA Long Island man who shoved a kid has been arrested for attacking the 12-year-old boy after catching the child recording his wife on a cellphone.
William Conte, a 39-year-old father of two, was filmed shoving into a young boy, Alex Anderson, after Anderson and his friends had surrounded his wife’s black SUV, driving through Dix Hills.
You can watch the scene unfold below via News 12 Brooklyn:
Anderson, who is just 12 years old, recounted the incident with NBC saying he and his friends were recording the woman in the SUV as a retaliative measure.
He alleges Conte’s wife was filming the group of youngsters first as she drove behind them. Anderson said he and another boy pulled out their phones and started taking video of the woman in response.
In the clip, Anderson is seen walking around the woman’s car getting video of the vehicle and license plate.
R.Lorenz/NBCThe boy, wearing a baseball cap and shorts, can be heard taunting the woman, saying:
Do I care? Does it look like I care? Got this person’s license plate.
Anderson can also be heard calling the woman, who was in a car with her two children, a ‘low life’.
R.Lorenz/NBCAnother boy in the video is heard calling the woman a ‘pedophile’, adding:
Do you like taking pictures of little children? Are you a pedophile? Do you enjoy touching little kids?
Moments later, a man wearing a white t-shirt can be seen running at Anderson.
R.Lorenz/NBCUpon impact, the man, identified as Conte, shoves Anderson to the ground and smashes the boy’s phone.
Conte can be heard yelling at Anderson, before he then runs at Anderson’s friend, who filmed the altercation on his phone.
Anderson, who suffered a head injury during the incident, later told NBC:
After it happened, I was scared and worried what he was going to do next.
R.Lorenz/NBCThe boy, who was interviewed alongside his father Christian Anderson, has a cast on his arm and bandages around his ankle.
The boy’s father called Conte a ‘coward’.
However, Dix Hill residents have defended Conte’s actions, claiming he was trying to defend his family after a spate of similar incidents involving the young people in the area.
R.Lorenz/NBCAccording to neighbour Michael Shain, who lives across the street from where the incident happened, the kids were allegedly trying to throw a dead snake into the woman’s car with her two kids inside.
He said:
There’s video of these kids running around with their bikes, stopping cars, getting in front of cars where they almost basically force you to hit them.
These kid are not innocent by any means. They started it, and unfortunately, the father went to protect his wife and two small kids.
4NewYork/NBCBut Christian Anderson said his son didn’t do anything which warranted such a violent reaction.
He told NBC:
They didn’t do anything vicious. Even if they throw a rock at the car, it doesn’t justify beating up a child. It just doesn’t.
Police HandoutWilliam Conte was arrested on charges of criminal mischief and harassment.
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A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.