Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

 

 

News

Update: Projectile Shopping Cart, Pushed By 12-Year-Olds, Puts UWS Mom In Critical Condition


By

Garth Johnston

Published Oct 31, 2011

Modified Oct 31, 2011


Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail


Never miss a story

 Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .


By

Garth Johnston

Published Oct 31, 2011

Modified Oct 31, 2011


Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail


We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

[Update] A 47-year-old Upper West Side mother is in critical condition at Harlem Hospital this morning after a shopping cart was dropped four stories onto her head, allegedly by a group of bored ruffians. Marion Salmon Hedges, was walking with her son yesterday when, according to police, around 5:45 p.m. a red Target cart was dropped from a walkway that connects Target to a parking lot near East 116th Street and Pleasant Avenue (see: here). Her alleged assailants weren't even 13.

According to witnesses the cart bounced off a sign before hitting the woman. "It hit her in the head. She just collapsed," Orlando Campos, 30, told the News, before describing a pool of blood collecting around her head. "She wasn’t moving at all." The woman was quickly taken to Harlem Hospital where she was in critical condition last night. "You see her laying there, unconscious in the bed, with 50,000 tubes in her," her father-in-law told the News. "She has absolutely no recognition, not even a glimmer of anything."

Police officers quickly went off to try and find the cart-pushers, eventually telling us they had arrested two juvenile males. It now appears those males are both 12-years-old. They've been charged with assault, weapons possession and juvenile delinquency. They say they were not aiming to hit anyone. A witness told the News that at least some of the pushers had doubts about the intelligence of dropping a shopping cart from so high up. "Their friend was trying to stop it, saying, 'Don’t do it!'" Carlos Vargas recalled. "But they didn’t care."

Tagged

crime

harlem

manhattan

nypd

shopping cart

target


Garth Johnston

Read more

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


MORE news

NYC tow companies busted for ripping off drivers must give $67K in refunds, city says

Mayor Mamdani has expanded enforcement on towing scams, but the unlicensed towing industry remains largely unregulated.

By

Liam Quigley

Published Oct 2, 2026 at 4:47 p.m. ET


Off-duty NYPD officer stabbed in the Bronx, police say

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Commissioner Jessica Tisch visited the officer in the hospital.

By

Ryan Kost

News

Off-duty NYPD officer stabbed in the Bronx, police say

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Commissioner Jessica Tisch visited the officer in the hospital.

By

Ryan Kost


DOC negligence factored in death at Rikers' Bellevue hospital outpost, jail officials say

By

Brittany Kriegstein

Conductor on NYC subway that dragged man to death may have skipped safety check, source says

By

Stephen Nessen

NYPD still searching for man who threw burning substance on victim in East Harlem

By

Ryan Kost


Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .