City Parks Worker Arrested For Violent Mugging Spree In Astoria

ASTORIA, QUEENS -- A City Parks Department employee was busted Monday night for allegedly choking and robbing a woman in Astoria in what police believe to be his latest of several violent muggings.

Donald Grier, 26, was arrested on robbery charges after he allegedly put the 28-year-old woman in a chokehold and stole her pocketbook early Aug. 5 on 29th Street near 35th Avenue, police said.

He's also suspected of violently robbing four other woman in Astoria since July 28, who were all either choked or threatened with knives, authorities said.

The first two women - 27 and 23 years old - in the alleged spree were both threatened with large knives before the suspect stole cash from them in robberies just a day apart, police said.

Another 21-year-old woman was robbed early July 31 when the suspect approached her on the corner of 43rd Street and 31 Avenue and punched her in the back of the head, cops said. He then choked her and took her wallet.

The woman walked to New York Presbyterian Hospital of Queens, where she was treated for cuts and scrapes.

Grier, a seasonal Parks employee at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, was identified as the man caught on tape in an "I Love NY" T-shirt after the robberies.

Police tweeted his mugshot Monday, calling him "armed and dangerous."

Lead photo via NYPD