Former New York governor David Paterson’s stepson bravely took blows to the head after stepping in front of him when they were ambushed by a gang.
Anthony Chester Sliwa, 20, and Paterson, 70, managed to fight off the thugs who jumped them on New York City’s Upper East Side about 8.35pm on Friday.
Curtis Silwa, leader of vigilante group Guardian Angels and Anthony’s biological father, explained how he and Paterson, who is legally blind, ‘stood their ground’ against three teenagers and two much older adult attackers.
‘David is blind so he couldn’t at first see what was going on, so Anthony had to guide him and then step in front of him and take a lot of the blows,’ Silwa told DailyMail.com.
‘He said the adults were the ones that were hitting the hardest.’
Former New York Governor David Paterson was savagely attacked by a trio of teenagers after he and his stepson tried to prevent them from climbing a fire escape in Manhattan
Anthony Chester Sliwa, 20, bravely took blows to the head after stepping in front of Paterson when they were ambushed by a gang
Silwa said his son, who was trained in martial arts by the Guardian Angels, told him ‘I did what I had to do, Dad’ when they spoke on Saturday morning.
‘I told him I was very proud of him, he was a true New Yorker, both of them. They stood their ground, they didn’t retreat, they didn’t run away,’ he said.
Anthony suffered a split lip and was awaiting a CAT scan to see if he had a concussion.
Paterson’s representatives earlier said the former governor suffered minor injuries to his face and body.
Silwa said they were both released from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in the early hours of the morning and were not admitted.
However, Silwa said he expected they would be ‘traumatized’ by the attack and ‘never be the same’.
Curtis Silwa (left), leader of vigilante group Guardian Angels and Anthony’s biological father (pictured together), explained how he and Paterson, who is legally blind, ‘stood their ground’
Paterson, Silwa, and Anthony aged about 10 in a photo from 2013
Silwa explained the pair were walking the family dog Bella around their usual route when Anthony spotted three teenagers climbing a fire escape at an apartment building next to a local mosque.
He said there was a brief verbal argument before Paterson and Anthony continued on their way.
But when they circled around the block, they were spotted by the three teens, who were with an adult man and woman inside a McDonalds on Second Avenue near East 96th Street.
All five then immediately attacked them in front of dozens of witnesses, of whom Silwa claimed none intervened.
Police released CCTV footage of the attackers – three teens and an adult man and woman – to help track them down
The three teenagers allegedly involved in the attack
The attack was filmed on multiple security cameras and police were hunting the attackers, Silwa said.
‘The police are on the case, but the problem for them is obviously it’s the former governor. This is embarrassing for them, but this is the sign of the times,’ he said.
Silwa said though Anthony and Paterson were not badly hurt, and he was relieved it wasn’t much worse, they would suffer psychologically.
‘They are traumatized like every other New York City victim, they will not feel comfortable in the streets,’ he said.
‘I know when this happens, victims, they don’t go out as much… David Patterson would travel the subways by himself, he would travel the subways with my son.
‘Now my son, he’ll be watching his back. He won’t be as open, he won’t be as friendly. He’ll be very jaded.’
Silwa said his son, who was trained in martial arts by the Guardian Angels, told him ‘I did what I had to do, Dad’ when they spoke on Saturday morning
Paterson and Anthony were jumped by the five attackers outside this McDonald’s on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on NYC’s Upper East Side
Silwa lamented how NYC had changed since he grew up, when people ‘got involved, they protected each other’.
‘There was a full McDonald’s and nobody did anything, they left Patterson and Anthony to themselves,’ he said.
‘To me [Paterson and Anthony] were like the way New Yorkers used to be. Now it’s like they mind their own business.
‘They run or they film it on their phone, they don’t get involved.’
Silwa said NYC needed to put 5,000 more cops on the streets so criminals didn’t think they could get away with lawlessness.
Paterson’s spokesman earlier said the governor and his stepson ‘suffered some injuries but were able to fight off their attackers’ and ‘have already filed a police report’.
The ruffians quickly fled the scene after they were fought off. Police released CCTV footage of the attackers to help track them down.
After the incident, the former governor was rushed to NY Cornell Medical Center, where his condition is reported to be ‘ok’
Paterson, a Democrat, was the 55th governor of the New York, serving from 2008 to 2010.
He was the first legally blind person to assume the gubernatorial office in any state, and the first black governor of New York.
Silwa unsuccessfully ran for NYC mayor as a Republican in 2021 and is staunchly critical of Mayor Eric Adams and his predecessor Bill de Blasio.
He married Anthony’s mother Mary in 2000 and they divorced in 2012 after she discovered he father two other children via IVF with his mistress, then-Queens Borough President Melinda Katz.
Mary married Paterson in 2019, taking both his last and middle names to become Mary Alexander Paterson.
Paterson quipped after their wedding: ‘She will now be my angel’