Stroller Pushing Madman Pleads Guilty to UES Assaults, Faces Five Years in the Can

Violent Sam Mensah, the stroller-pushing papa behind a series of surprise attacks against Upper East Side pedestrians last summer, pled guilty on July 16—the day before he was to face trial for his bizarre and unsettling crime spree.

According to the East Side Feed, the UES news blog that first brought the Mensah menace to public attention, the defendant plead guilty to one count of Assault in the second degree—with a promised five-year sentence— and one count of Assault in the Third degree, with the latter sentence running concurrently with the first. Mensah’s formal sentencing date is set for September 5.

So ends, mostly, a story seemed so bizarre that, even in New York, it defied credulity.

Sadly, however, this really happened, and it’s a credit to Kelly Kreth—a dogged Upper East Side journalist who unexpectedly became one of Mensah’s victims—that this case had the resolution it did.

The outcome might well have been different had she not written about it, and merely relied on police, and a sometimes inexplicably lenient justice system, to keep tabs on Mensah, who, despite eleven prior arrests, kept returning to the streets.

The pattern of Mensah’s attacks, which date at least to December 2022, persisted with little public attention until September 2023, when Kreth wrote about her experience of being attacked by Mensah for the East Side Feed, a popular UES news blog.

In her article headlined, “This Stroller-Wielding Man has Been Menacing Upper East Siders for Months”—which was accompanied by multiple photos of the then unidentified perp—Kreth detailed how Mensah literally spat in her eye on August 14, 2023.

The scribe was innocently walking her beloved daschund, Biggie Smalls— named for the iconic Brooklyn rapper, Notorious B.I.G.— on York Avenue near 85th Street, when Mensah, pushing a black Bravo baby stroller (presumably with a child inside though the stroller was covered at the time), lunged at Kreth and then calmy walked away at a slow pace. Apparently, he was not afraid.

Though upset, Kreth had the composure to take a picture of her assailant—a youthful, street-style-dressed black male in a blue-and-white top, blue shorts, blue ball cap—and quickly call 911.

Twenty minutes later, cops arrived and, seemingly unfazed by Kreth’s account of what happened, said they’d file a report. Since Kreth wasn’t physically harmed, they said, it couldn’t be considered assault.

Though shaken, in the weeks following, Kreth kept on the case, taking special note of a posting on a Facebook group, Moms of the Upper East Side (MUES), that described a recent similar attack against a 64-year-old woman.

In this case, the unsuspecting victim was violently shoved at 3rd Ave and East 77th Street. Pictures of the assailant, obtained from the woman’s apartment building cameras, were also included in the MUES post.

The stroller pushing madman had struck again!

Soon other victims came forward—none of whom knew each other, or their assailant’s identity— and on September 13, the story was picked up by the New York Post, and various tv stations after that, affording it—and the diligence of reporter Kelly Kreth— a much larger audience, including the public, the police, and politicians, than it would have otherwise received.

Two days later, Sam Mensah was in toils. “Stroller-pushing maniac busted in NYC assault on grandmother” read the Post headline above a story noting that Mensah was now being held on $50,000 bail.

Though little has been revealed about Mensah’s personal or family history, including the toddler boy he traveled with, it was reported that when arrested he gave his address as a South Bronx homeless shelter.

Why Mensah was an Upper East Side habitue remains unclear but, now that he’d been exposed, his local habits became more evident.

On December 22, 2022, for example, Mensah allegedly assaulted 68-year-old attorney Lawrence Warshaw was punched and knocked him out cold outside a newsstand on East 86th Street and Lexington Avenue. Though Mensah was soon arrested for felony assault, he was released on a whopping $1,500 bail.

On June 26, 2023, Veronica Poloneitchik was attacked at 2nd Avenue and E. 82nd Street.

“As a woman, you always pay attention to babies,” Poloneitchik told the Post. “I was looking at the baby in the stroller and the guy that was pushing the stroller literally jumped and slammed me into the wall with his hip and shoulder.”

Poloneitchik flagged down a cop to report the incident but when Mensah—who was then unidentified— claimed she was trying to “attack” the baby, police sent both parties away.

There were other assaults too, none of which sated Mensah’s violent impulses, nor got him off the streets. Is this surprising? For many New Yorkers, it is not.

Which begs the question why Mensah’s numerous earlier crimes weren’t treated more seriously. Had they been, not only would some of his victims have been spared the trauma of his assaults, Mensah himself might have gotten treatment that could have spared him—and his presumed child— the prison sentence that is now his fate.