NYPD: Man suspected of beating woman in bar after she rejected his advances in custody

NYPD: Bar beating suspect in custody

NEW YORK — A man suspected of brutally beating a woman in a New York City bar restroom after she rejected his advances was taken into police custody Friday.

Chief police spokesman Paul Browne said the man had made statements implicating himself in the beating. The name of the man, who had been seen in a video walking down the sidewalk after the attack, was not released.

The attack occurred around 2 a.m. Thursday at Social, a three-story bar and lounge on Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan where the 29-year-old victim, a nurse, had gone with a friend, authorities said.

The woman told police that she had rebuffed attempts by the man to dance with her, said Browne. When she went to the women’s restroom on the second floor, he followed her and burst into a stall.

The man beat the victim until she was unconscious. Her friend later found her in the stall and called 911, believing she might have fallen.

The woman was hospitalized with a broken eye socket, broken jaw and other injuries. When she regained consciousness, she told hospital workers she had been attacked.

Browne said investigators think the man also might have tried to sexually assault the victim. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name potential victims of sexual assault.

A phone message left at the bar was not immediately returned.