NYC Cops Seek Brick Attacker

A young woman was fighting for her life Thursday, a day after a stranger smashed her skull with a 6-pound brick as she was walking through midtown Manhattan in broad daylight.

Police were still searching for the man who attacked 27-year-old Nicole Barrett. Authorities said the suspect was possibly a homeless man who frequented the neighborhood.

Barrett was in critical condition after brain surgery at Bellevue Hospital.

Barrett was on her last day as a temporary worker on Tuesday. She was returning to her Madison Avenue office after getting a haircut when her attacker struck in front of several horrified witnesses.

The man slammed the 8-inch gray paving stone into the back of Barrett's head, muttered something and fled into the crowd on busy 42nd Street and Madison Avenue. Several bystanders gave chase but did not catch him.

Volunteer emergency worker Richard Nunez rushed to help the young woman. She had been knocked unconscious, he told CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.

"She had a laceration to the back of her head," he said. "Her nose was broken in the front and she had blood running down the front of her face."

"He just came out of the blue and assaulted her," New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir said.

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who met with Barrett's parents shortly after they arrived from Dallas, announced a $10,000 reward in the crime. Police have offered their own $1,000 reward.

Barrett had moved to New York from Texas only a year ago. In recent weeks, she had finally adapted to the city's pace and people, and was about to start a full-time position as an office manager, said Stacy McGlaun, her roommate.

"The ironic thing is we were just starting to feel comfortable here," McGlaun said. "We were just starting to think New York wasn't as bad as people think."

The attack was the latest in a string of random, violent incidents in the city this year.

In January, a Manhattan woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train by a released mental patient. Three months later, a Bronx man lost both his legs in a similar incident. And in June, a 76-year-old Brooklyn man was fatally stabbed outside his home by a mentally ill woman.

The suspect was described as a black male, 5' 6" tall, with a medium build and a medium complexion. His hair was cropped short and he was unshaven. Witnesses say he was wearing dirty blue jeans and a black jacket with yellow trim at the time of the attack.