Rockville Centre man recovering after assault

One moment, Kyle Rogers was leaving a bar in Manhattan early Sunday morning, March 2, to meet up with some friends. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the back of an ambulance with an EMT looming over him.

The 23-year-old Rockville Centre resident was the apparent victim of the “knockout game” — young men sucker-punching people on the street, trying to knock them unconscious. Not only was Rogers knocked cold, but his jaw was broken in two places.

“I remember being in a lot of pain and not knowing,” he said. “That was the scariest part — not knowing what happened.”

Rogers has no memory of the incident, and there were apparently no witnesses. It was through the efforts of family members that he learned what really happened. In the days after the attack, his twin brother, Michael, went online and found photos online of the area where police said the ambulance was dispatched to: in front of the Bowery Mission in downtown Manhattan. And in photos of the building, Michael saw two security cameras.

“We were trying to put the pieces together of what happened,” said their father, Mike. “We thought he just fell. As a parent, I figured he drank too much and he fell. But his friends were swearing up and down that he was OK [before he was attacked].”

Mike called a friend who is a retired NYPD officer and asked for help. He told him about the cameras on the side of the building, and the two went into the city, and spoke to the Bowery Mission’s assistant director, who found the footage from that night.

As it happened, the building’s security cameras caught the attack. In the grainy video, Rogers can be seen walking along Bowery as a man — his face indistinguishable in the glare from nearby lights — walks up behind him and punches Rogers in the face, and Rogers falls to the ground.

“We played [the video] and saw the attack,” Mike Rogers said. “It was devastating to watch that.” They brought the video to detectives at the NYPD’s 5th Precinct, who are investigating the incident.

Rogers needed stitches above his right eye, where he hit the pavement, and under his chin, where he was punched. Doctors had to wire his jaw shut to make sure the bones set properly, and his diet will be limited to nutritional milkshakes for the next six to eight weeks.

“It sucks,” he said. “It’s not even that it’s painful, it’s just annoying. Every time you have something frozen, it’s cold on your teeth. But luckily, I chipped my tooth in the accident, so I can use that [gap] for suction.”

Though he was knocked out and had his jaw broken, Rogers’s injuries were not severe, and he will recover. His jaw will be wired shut for six to eight weeks.

Police, meanwhile, are still looking for his attacker, and the NYPD detective who is in charge of the case has kept in contact with Rogers. “I’m just hoping they get these kids off the street and under control,” he said. “I’d love to see this kid serve time so he understands what he’s done.

“I really want to help prevent this from happening in the future,” he added.