New York man, 80, faces homicide charge after sidewalk shoving

NEW YORK — A Manhattan grand jury has indicted an 80-year-old man in connection with the death of his longtime neighbor, according to court records.

The man, Dana Escoffier, was initially charged with assault after police said he shoved the neighbor, 82-year-old Dean Whetzel, on a West Village sidewalk in October. Whetzel fell to the ground, smacking his head on the pavement.

He died from his injuries on Nov. 5. A day later, the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Escoffier was indicted in December on a charge of criminally negligent homicide, the records show.

He is set to be arraigned Jan. 21. Omar Rashad Fortune, a lawyer listed as representing Escoffier, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The two men had lived around the corner from each other for nearly five decades, in buildings with the same landlord. Before the sidewalk encounter, on Hudson Street near West 10th Street, close to their homes, they had always seemed to get on well, according to other tenants, their buildings’ superintendent and family members.

Escoffier used to bring his laundry to Charles Street Laundromat, a wash-and-fold owned by Whetzel and his husband. In recent years, Escoffier would see Whetzel walking through the neighborhood with his dog, Buddy.

On the afternoon of Oct. 11, Whetzel bumped into Escoffier in front of Cowgirl, a Southwestern restaurant that divided their buildings. Escoffier shoved Whetzel, according to a criminal complaint.

“I pushed him because he bumped into me,” Escoffier said to one of the passersby who had gathered around the men, according to the complaint. He then walked north toward West Fourth Street, where he was arrested.

For about three weeks, Rodger Kepler, Whetzel’s husband, who had shared his West Village apartment for 52 years, sat by his hospital bedside. Whetzel’s skull had been fractured, causing severe brain bleeding, and he was in a coma, Kepler said. He never woke up.

When Kepler learned of the pending indictment against Escoffier, his mind jumped to the prospect of a criminal trial and a sentencing hearing.

“It won’t bring back Dean, which is what I really want,” he said last week, before the indictment became public. “But maybe I will have the chance to ask him why. Why’d you have to push him? What did Dean do to deserve to be pushed? It’s so senseless.”