- Jul 10, 2007
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this boy does the right thing and instead of getting praised, he's getting harassed and labeled a snitch by his peers.
He’s a teenage hero in one of the city’s most horrific pranks-gone-bad.
In chilling video obtained exclusively by The Post, 14-year-old Achilles Baskin of Harlem is seen frantically trying to stop two twisted pals from pushing a shopping cart off a third-floor parking garage onto Manhattan mom Marion Hedges below — an act of bravery that he says still haunts him today.
“They wanted me to help them throw the cart, but I said no,” the teen told The Post.
“I was trying to stop them. I was trying to put the cart near me. But they had the advantage because there were two of them against one.”
The surveillance video shows Achilles not only first refusing to go along with the insane stunt pulled by his buddies — Jeovanni Rosario and Raymond Hernandez — but also repeatedly trying to physically thwart them outside the Target at the East River Plaza Center in East Harlem on Oct. 30.
Rosario, 13, and Hernandez, 12, enter the frame heading to a cart on an elevated walkway. Achilles can be seen sprinting to catch up with them to stop them.
At first, he manages to keep a grip on the cart while struggling with them over it. But the two thugs break away and grab a metal cart. Achilles rushes over to grasp the other side of that cart.
As Rosario and Hernandez go back for the red plastic cart, Achilles pushes it off the walkway. He then runs.
“I left — I didn’t want to do what they wanted me to do,” Achilles said.
As soon as he is gone, the fiends push the cart to the railing again and heave it over, sending it hurtling nearly 50 feet to the ground as they run off.
Another camera caught the result — the cart crashing down on Hedges, who was outside the parking garage with her 13-year-old son.
The 47-year-old philanthropist and her son had been buying candy for underprivileged kids for a Halloween party.
Hedges is seen in the footage immediately crumpling from the impact of the cart.
Her son whips around as pieces of the cart go skidding across the pavement and passers-by rush to help.
“I heard a crash when it hit,” Achilles recalled. “I saw [people] doing CPR on her.”
“I was really mad what they did,” the boy said of Rosario and Hernandez.
“I was upset they hit her. What about her kids? Her family? I thought she was going to die or something.”
Achilles said that he couldn’t stop them but that he knew he could still help.
“I went to a [store security] officer and said, ‘I know who did it,’ ” he said. “He took me to a police officer.”
For that, Achilles said, he has been branded a rat by neighborhood punks.
“Some kids said, ‘You’re a snitch,’ ” he said. “I’m not a snitch. It was on camera.”
His mom, Shareen, knows how hard her son tried to avert disaster that day.
“My son’s a hero,” she told The Post.
Achilles has since had to move in with a relative, well away from Harlem, because of the ordeal, she said.
“He said he tried. I know he tried,” his mom said. “Every day, he asked, ‘How’s that lady doing?’ ”
Hedges’ husband, Michael, said he knows his wife isn’t the only one suffering.
“There have been a number of victims in this tragedy — not only my wife and family, but this poor young man who did his best to try to save my wife from grievous injury,’’ the husband said.
Michael Hedges said his wife, a real-estate agent, still “has memory, attention and focus issues,” but that he’s hopeful for a recovery.
Meanwhile, Achilles’ recovery included a three-week stay at Bellevue hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
“He couldn’t sleep,” his mother said.
Achilles said he doesn’t regret what he did that day.
“I felt like I did a really good thing. I tried to help her out,” he said.
“I hope she lives a good life. I feel sorry for her. I wish the cart never hit her.’’
Rosario and Hernandez pleaded guilty to assault. Rosario is serving six to 18 months in a nonsecure facility in Westchester, and Hernandez is doing six to 16 months in a therapeutic group home.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/tried_to_stop_the_cart_thugs_dAhiODnCQJMcGdnOsVP5jL#ixzz1phQWr2hu
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