Skateboarder's Astoria Baseball Bat Attacks Send 2 To Hospital: DA

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A baseball bat-wielding skateboarder faces an attempted murder charge after he clubbed two men in random attacks near Astoria Park, prosecutors said.

Matthew Lloyd, 36, was arraigned on charges Monday, two days after police said he sent two men to the hospital in vicious back-to-back assaults with a metal baseball bat while he rode a skateboard.

The Saturday attacks left one man unconscious on the pavement and another man, 79, with skull fractures, among other brutal injuries, authorities said.

"The randomness of the attacks is as frightening as their brutality," said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

The attacks began about 6:10 p.m. when Lloyd rode a skateboard behind a 46-year-old man near 19th Street and Ditmars Boulevard and swung a metal baseball bat at his head, prosecutors said.

The man fell on the pavement, hit his head and lost consciousness as Lloyd skated away, authorities said. His injuries including cuts, bleeding and swelling, officials said.

About 10 minutes later and a few blocks away, Lloyd wheeled his skateboard toward a 79-year-old man near 20-17 19th St. and struck him in the head with his bat, prosecutors said.

The blow sent the elderly man to the ground, where Lloyd repeatedly struck him in the head and face with the bat, causing fractures to his skull, eye socket and face, authorities said. The man received surgery to save his eye and remained hospitalized Monday, officials said.

Police arrested Lloyd near the second attack less than an hour later, authorities said. They found him with a skateboard and a metal baseball bat, officials said.