 [NYPOST] A man with a history of assaulting kids allegedly attacked a Queens toddler by allegedly flipping the wagon she was sitting in, police said.
Christopher Elder, 31, accosted a woman who was pushing her toddler granddaughter as she tossed out trash in Flushing early Friday, according to the NYPD.
The incident unfolded about 6:20 a.m. at 45th Avenue and Robinson Street when Elder, of Queens, began shouting at the woman, Maria Zamora, 48, who doesn’t speak English.
He allegedly grabbed and shook the cart with both hands and then kicked it into the street causing the woman’s 3-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, to fall to the pavement, authorities said.
Sophia suffered a cut to her head and was taken to Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where she received five stitches, the complaint says.
Gabriel Zamora, Sophia’s uncle, said Saturday that he rushed to the hospital when his mother told him what happened.
"Someone hit me. Someone kicked me," Zamora said the tot told him.
"Now she’s very scared. She didn’t want to come home yesterday," Zamora said.
He said she liked to ride in the little blue wagon, which was outside the family’s home Saturday.
Sitting inside was a brown paper grocery bag Zamora said that Elder left behind. It contained two cups of instant ramen noodles, one of them open.
The little girl, who had a bandage on her forehead and a cut under her left eye, came out to wave to a photographer.
Elder was caught nearby at 45th Avenue and Kissena Boulevard, and then taken to Elmhurst Hospital for evaluation.
He was charged with assault, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment. He was arraigned Saturday in Queens Criminal Court and sent to jail without bail until his next court date on March 28.
Elder appeared to have been near the Zamora’s building Friday morning to visit a relative.
His uncle, Tyrick Elder, said he was at the apartment house to see his brother when Christopher appeared around 6 a.m. and was banging on the door so hard it fell off its hinges, according to a criminal complaint.
Tyrick Elder had an order of protection against his nephew, the complaint said.
Christopher Elder was also charged with criminal contempt and criminal mischief Friday.
A woman who lives in the building said she had seen him there previously knocking on his relative’s door.
Elder has a long rap sheet that includes at least eight prior arrests, many for unprovoked assaults, including a Dec. 11 arrest in Flushing in which he allegedly assaulted a 9-year-old girl by throwing her to the ground, police said.
On Feb. 25, Elder allegedly hit a 30-year-old man in the head with a glass bottle at a U-Haul location off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, cops said.
Following his arrest Friday, he was charged in that incident, too.
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