Mumbling NYC maniac beats 66-year-old grandma in apparent random attack in broad daylight

A mumbling madman randomly pummeled a Brooklyn grandma on a street corner Sunday afternoon — and the victim later told The Post through tears that she’s now afraid to even walk outside.

Aida Mercado, 66 — a retiree who used to help special-needs kids on city school buses — recalled how she and a friend were on their way to her pal’s birthday dinner at about 4:45 p.m. when the roaming nut came up to her, muttered a few garbled words and launched into his vicious attack in East Flatbush.

“We were walking to 40th Street and Hubbard Place [when] this guy came down the block, and he just pulled me,” a traumatized Mercado said Monday afternoon.

“[He] mentioned some name, a woman’s name, I really don’t remember. Then he pushed me to the ground, and he started punching my face and my head.”

Mercado said that for a second, she thought that might be the end of the line.

Judge told NYC brute accused of pummeling 82-year-old woman that she was ‘out of chances’ — then cut her loose anyway

“ ‘Oh boy, this is it — this is it,’ ” she said she remembered thinking. “He was punching me in my head, in my face. I don’t know about dying, but I was afraid something was going to happen to me, something bad. It was a very bad feeling.

“My girlfriend was hysterical, she was screaming. … Everything happened right away,” Mercado said, adding that the assault only stopped when her friend’s nephew stepped in and saved her.

Cops are still searching for the  thug and described him as having a dark complexion and wearing black glasses, a black hoodie, blue sweatpants and gray shoes.

But for now, he’s still in the wind. And that’s left Mercado scared to even walk out the door.

“It’s like, I’m an independent woman, and now I’m going to be afraid to go out because that guy is still out there,” she said. “It’s traumatic. It was a shock. I’ve been in this neighborhood for so many years — maybe 45, 47 years — and I’ve never seen anything like this happen.”

Vicious duo who pummeled elderly woman on NYC street freed without bail — despite arrest history: cops

Luckily, Mercado wasn’t seriously hurt — a hospital trip and a CAT scan cleared her of any major injuries aside from some swelling, bruising and cuts, she said.

Her son, Con Ed worker Angel Colon, 48, told The Post that her mother’s friend’s nephew, who is visiting from Pennsylvania, spotted what he believes was a knife in the attacker’s hand.

“She’s really scared. Nothing like this ever happened to her,’’ the son said of his mom.

“I show her a photo of the guy, and she don’t even want to look at it. … She’s afraid, bro,’’ he said. “We lived in that building for almost all our lives.”

Colon added that NYPD detectives told him the unidentified suspect, who fled after assaulting his mom, is being eyed in attacks on two other women, too.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR METRO DAILY NEWSLETTER

“My co-worker told me that he sees that guy at the junction hanging out around Chase bank,’’ the son said. “He just hangs out there. And he talks to himself. He just be there with his headphones talking to himself.

“So this guy is somebody that’s not new to the neighborhood. He’s somebody that a lot of people seen around that area.”

Mercado said she hopes the police nab him quickly.

“Who knows how many people he’s hurting out there,” she said. “They have to get this guy. This is not safe. Thank God I’m alive.

“He’s out there, he’s going to continue what he’s doing,” she continued. “It’s no good. He needs to be put in [jail] because he’s doing a lot to hurt people out there. A person like that is not supposed to be out there.”

Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

The public can also submit tips on Crime Stoppers website, or on X @NYPDTips.

For the latest metro stories, top headlines, breaking news and more, visit nypost.com/metro/