MAKING STRIDES: Marion Hedges strolls the Upper West Side yesterday, five months after she was seriously injured by a tossed shopping cart. (Brigitte Stelzer)
COURAGE: Achilles Baskin, 14, won praise yesterday after The Post revealed his attempt to stop the cart attack. (
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A Manhattan mom who was nearly killed by a thrown shopping cart broke her silence yesterday to thank the brave teen who tried to help her — and even worry about the two punks behind the cruel prank.
Blind in one eye and still struggling with other physical issues, charity worker Marion Hedges walked with her father outside her family’s Upper West Side apartment as she talked about her horrific ordeal.
“The young man who helped me was very brave,” the 47-year-old real-estate agent said of Harlem 14-year-old Achilles Baskin, whose heroic efforts to stop his two buddies from dropping the cart were first detailed in The Post yesterday.
Asked whether she had gotten an apology from the two boys who critically injured her at an East Harlem mall in October, Hedges said, “I haven’t heard from them, but I wish them well.
“I do, because I feel very sorry for them.’’
“I don’t know that my son would do something like that or that his friends would do something like that. But there were a lot of things in [the two boys’] lives to bring them to that. A shopping mall is not a place for kids to hang out.”
Hedges was standing under a ramp at the East River Plaza Center parking lot outside a Target when a shopping cart, pushed by the pair 50 feet above her, crashed down on her head.
She had been at the mall with her 13-year-old son to buy Halloween candy for underprivileged kids.
A doctor on the scene brought her back to life after feeling no pulse.
“I don’t have eyesight out of my left eye,” Hedges said yesterday. “It’s a work in progress.”
Although she walked unassisted and spoke in a strong voice, relatives said she has a long way to go.
A parking-garage surveillance video obtained exclusively by The Post showed Achilles futilely fighting with the two young creeps over the cart.
Achilles told The Post that he had to spend three weeks at Bellevue Hospital getting psychological help to cope after the attack.
He added that neighborhood thugs have been hassling him for “snitching” on the two boys, Jeovanni Rosario, 13, and Raymond Hernandez, 12.
The pair pleaded guilty to assault. Rosario is now serving six to 18 months in a nonsecure facility in Westchester, and Hernandez is doing six to 16 months in a therapeutic group home.
Achilles’ mother said the backlash against her son for turning in the pranksters has forced him to stay with other relatives.
Mayor Bloomberg praised Achilles, saying that other New Yorkers could follow his example.
“What the kid did you’d hope everybody would do,” the mayor said yesterday. “I think the community will rally around this kid and understand, you know, he did what was right. He did what I hope you and I would have the courage to do. And he certainly deserves our admiration.”
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called Achilles “a brave young man who tried to do the right thing.”
Harlem Councilwoman Inez Dickens blasted those who would ostracize him.
“This is wrong what is happening to this child,” she said. “It angers me.”
Hedges’ dad also praised Achilles.
“I’m glad he tried,” the father said.
Of Jeovanni and Raymond, the dad said, “What have these young thugs learned from their experience? That they can be thugs and get away with it.
“And it’s a very sad comment on the state of justice,” he added, choking up.