Yesterday evening a Brooklyn woman threw sulfuric acid at a 59-year-old man, severely burning both her victim and herself in the process. After the attack the two were treated at the burn unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital with second- and third-degree burns.
The woman, whose motives in throwing the acid remain unknown, was arrested at the hospital, according to police who refrained from identifying either party.
Motive or no, the attack did not sound like a friendly accident. The FDNY had to get a a haz-mat unit to set up a containment pool outside the victim's home to clean the duo off, and according to FDNY Battalion Chief George Johnson "They had some acid on them and were still burning" when help arrived.
The acid, which the News points out can be found in car batteries, certain fertilizers and cleaning solutions, was strong enough to burn holes in a mattress that was later thrown out of the building where the victim lives.
Acid attacks seem to happen a few times every year in a city as big as ours, but this one comes hot on the heels of another incident in Brooklyn—in which a teenager tried to burn out her classmates eyes in a fight over an older man.
