NEW YORK, June 1 — An ice cream truck driver tried to settle a turf dispute with a Midtown Manhattan pretzel vendor with a baseball bat to the head, the police said yesterday.
The attack was another skirmish in the continuing battles over territory between street-food vendors, notably ice cream sellers.
It occurred several weeks ago, but the ice cream man, John Cicero, was not arrested until yesterday, the police said.
On the afternoon of May 12, Cicero, 40, drove his New York Ice Cream truck to a favorite spot on 54th Street near Madison Avenue, but he found the pretzel vendor already selling from a cart on the sidewalk there, said Lt. Marco Gonzalez, head of the Midtown North Precinct’s detective squad.
Cicero and the pretzel man, whose name was not released, entered into a standoff, Gonzalez said: “Both of them mutually thought that the other would make it more difficult for them to conduct business at the location.”
The men exchanged punches, and then Cicero went to his truck, retrieved the bat and hit the pretzel man twice in the head, causing contusions, Gonzalez said.
A witness got the bat away from Cicero, who then pulled a knife, menaced the pretzel man and fled in the white-and-purple ice cream truck, the police said.
A search ensued.
The police showed surveillance video images believed to be of Cicero to other New York Ice Cream vendors.
Wanted posters went up.
Eventually, Cicero’s lawyer contacted the police, and Cicero turned himself in yesterday morning.
He was charged with felony assault.
Cicero’s lawyer, Theodore Kasapis, did not immediately return a message left yesterday.
New York Ice Cream, based in Queens, has been in the news lately — its drivers have shut the soft-serve giant Mister Softee out of Midtown, using threats and intimidation, Mister Softee officials said.
East 54th Street falls squarely into New York Ice Cream’s Midtown territory. — New York Times
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