Police say Chris Elder approached the girl’s 48-year-old grandmother when she dumped trash at 6:20 a.m. on 45th Avenue and Robinson Street in Flushing.
He started shouting at her incoherently, authorities said, but his grandmother did not speak English.
The elder allegedly overturned the cart in which a girl named Sofia was riding and poured it on the asphalt.
She received a head cut and was taken to Flushing Hospital Medical Center for examination.
Sophia is now in the care of her uncle, who said she was horrified after spending most of the day in hospital due to head injuries.
“He threw her out of it, pushed her and started beating him,” Gabriel Loja said in Spanish.
He said he was the victim of an accidental attack where the family last lived in the Crown, and so they moved to Flushing.
“We decided to move here,” he said. – It seemed safer.
Elder was caught nearby on 45th Avenue and Kissen Boulevard and taken to Elmhurst Hospital for examination.
He is accused of assault, careless danger, harm to the child in a way and harassment.
He had previously had at least eight arrests, many of which were assaults.
Police say on February 25 he hit a 30-year-old man with a glass bottle on the head at U-Haul along the BQE.
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He was charged in the incident after being detained on Friday.
The elders had previously been arrested for allegedly assaulting another child, a 9-year-old girl who police say was thrown to the ground on December 11 also in Flushing.
He was also arrested on August 21, 2020 for allegedly stabbing his friend in the back of the head.
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