A former New York state Senate candidate says a random man slugged her while she walked her dog in Central Park — and then strolled away as if nothing had happened.
Maria Danzilo, 66, told The Post she was still badly shaken by the attack, which happened at about 2:25 p.m. Wednesday while she was walking her Norfolk terrier, Willow, toward the park’s West 81st Street exit.
Danzilo had been talking to a friend on the phone, she said, when she spotted a stranger approaching her out of the corner of her eye. Then, he lunged at her.
“I must have raised my left arm, because he hit my arm, not my face,” Danzilo said Thursday. “I think he was aiming for my face. But I dropped the phone and yelled at him, something like, ‘How dare you hit me!'”
The man sauntered away as she and other bystanders called 911.
She snapped a quick photo of him, but didn’t say anything more because she was scared he might be armed, she said.
“He had a vacant look in his eyes,” Danzilo recalled. “He looked dangerous to me, like he was going to hit other people.”
Danzilo brought her pup home, then returned to the park after the NYPD called and told her to meet up with cops from the Central Park precinct.
“They were very helpful, concerned and responsive,” said the former Democratic candidate for the state Senate’s 47th district.
Her assailant did not appear homeless, she said. He was on the younger side, about 5-foot, 10-inches and wearing a gray hoodie under a green jacket. He also had on a pair of distinctive white headphones, Danzilo said.
But she had noticed him beforehand, maybe because of his mannerisms or walk.
“Before he approached me, I did think to myself, ‘That person looks he might be dangerous,” said Danzilo, a lifelong New Yorker and mother of three.
“There was something about him that didn’t’ look safe to me,” she said. “It was like an instinct. Something was not right.”
An NYPD spokeswoman said cops were investigating the incident, which was written up as a harassment report. There have been no arrests.
Danzilo took to Twitter on Wednesday to castigate Mayor Eric Adams over her assault.
“Our once safe park & neighborhood has become terrifying,” she tweeted. “Walking my dog in middle of day should not be filled with risk like this! I call on @NYCMayor to put his money where his mouth is and live up to his promise of delivering real public safety.”
It’s the second time this week that a well-known figure was attacked in the Big Apple.
On Monday, Jane Ferguson, a reporter for “PBS NewsHour,” said she was punched in the face by a stranger on a packed subway car.
The award-winning journalist tweeted about the violent assault to thank a fellow subway rider who guided her off the train and to the police.
Danzilo said her arm still hurt a bit Thursday. But her nerves have taken a beating.
“I was upset and shaken,” Danzilo said. “But I was also thinking I was really lucky that he didn’t have a knife or a gun. I felt like I narrowly escaped something that could have been much more serious.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
