Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Matthew Lloyd was arraigned today on charges of attempted murder and assault for allegedly clubbing two men with a metal baseball bat he wielded while riding a skateboard.

District Attorney Katz said: “The randomness of the attacks is as frightening as their brutality. As a city, we cannot concede our neighborhoods to those who would randomly attack. The defendant will be held to account for his alleged actions.”

Lloyd, 36, of 20^th Avenue in Astoria, was arraigned on charges of attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first and second degrees, attempted assault in the first and second degrees and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Queens Criminal Court Judge Anthony Battisti ordered Lloyd to return to court on August 25.

Lloyd faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of attempted murder.

According to the charges:

• On August 19, at approximately 6:10 p.m., Lloyd, riding a skateboard, approached Jamal Bermudez from behind near the intersection of 19^th Street and Ditmars Boulevard and struck him on the back of the head with a metal baseball bat. The victim, 46, fell, struck his head on the pavement and lost consciousness. The defendant fled on his skateboard. Bermudez suffered injuries including bleeding, swelling and lacerations.
• Within minutes of the attack on Bermudez, at approximately 6:21 pm, Lloyd, still riding a skateboard, approached 79-year-old Massalis Hristos near 20-17 19^th Street and struck him on the head with the metal baseball bat, knocking him to the ground. While the victim was on the ground, Lloyd repeatedly struck him in the head and face with the bat, causing fractures to his skull, eye socket and face. The victim underwent surgery in an effort to save his eye and remains hospitalized.

Lloyd was arrested a short distance away less than an hour after the second attack in possession of a skateboard and a metal bat.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Daniel Novak of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum, Bureau Chief, and Assistant District Attorneys Debra Pomodore and Brian Hughes, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Special Prosecutions Joyce Smith.