The wailing mother of a convicted thug collapsed when her son was tossed in prison for three years for viciously smacking a baseball bat into a tourist’s legs during a drunken brawl in the West Village last year.
“My only son, my only son!” the heartbroken mom shrieked hysterically, writhing on the courtroom floor for close to half an hour.
An ambulance was finally called to remove the grieving mother from the Manhattan court building in a stretcher as her daughters and husband trailed behind her.
A jury found Sherif Rizk, 23, guilty of felony assault for his role in the violent melee which left Massachusetts man Kevin McCarron unconscious on MacDougal Street in the early morning hours of Dec 13, 2012.
McCarron sustained a fractured skull and permanent brain damage, he testified at the trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Rizk was acquitted of attacking Kevin but found guilty of assault for hitting his brother Patrick with a bat during the street tussle.
The conflict escalated when Rizk’s group retrieved an arsenal of weapons from the trunk of his car.
His lawyer argued for a no jail sentence citing his client’s minor role in the fracas and his enrollment in a master’s degree program at Brooklyn College.
But Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin didn’t let Rizk off the hook with a slap on the wrist.
“I am not going to absolve Mr Rizk,” the judge said. “The protestations of regret, the haunting nature of him reliving whatever is going on in his head does not excuse what he actively did that night.”
He gave the student three years in state prison and 1.5 years of post release supervision.
Rizk also expressed his remorse to the victims. “I am saddened and upset by the pain sustained by those injured as well as the grief it caused each of them and their families,” he read from a statement.
Rizk and two pals stood trial for the brutal beating of Kevin with a parking club, tire iron and bat.
Co-defendant Fatem Harsakh was convicted of seven felonies and sentenced to 20 years in prison but jumped bail during a pretrial hearing.
Mahmoud Habib was acquitted on all charges. The trio dodged the top charge of attempted murder.
Farsakh told police the fight erupted when a member of McCarron’s group used a racial slur aimed at their Arab background.