Fresh Direct Driver's Mallet-Wielding Attacker Sentenced: DA

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — The dollar van driver who used a rubber mallet to beat a Fresh Direct delivery man was sentenced to serve three years in prison, Brooklyn prosecutors announced Monday.

Damian Bailey, 36, started shouting at the 23-year-old Fresh Direct driver after their two vehicles collided near Flatbush Avenue and State Street around noon on March 20, 2016, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

The Fresh Direct driver tried to take pictures of the dollar van's license plate, but Bailey stepped on the gas and drove for half a block with the 23-year-old clinging to his hood, prosecutors said.

Bailey then grabbed a rubber mallet, hopped out of the van and began to beat the driver who curled up in a fetal position in the street, said prosecutors.

Witnesses summoned an NYPD detective who watched Bailey walk away with a mallet in his hand, prosecutors said.

The Fresh Direct truck driver was rushed to Methodist Hospital where he was treated for three broken vertebrae in his spine as well as bruises on his shoulder and knee, prosecutors said.

Bailey, of Jamaica, Queens, was found guilty of assault in Brooklyn Criminal court in October and sentenced to three years in prison on Nov. 20, prosecutors said.

“This defendant inexplicably escalated a minor traffic incident into an assault and left the victim with serious injuries," said Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez in statement.

"Such unwarranted violence should never be a response to a dispute, making today’s prison sentence appropriate and just.”

Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn District Attorney's office