The Brooklyn brute who pummeled a US Navy veteran twice his age exploded with rage because he thought the 63-year-old was peeping at his mom, prosecutors said at his arraignment Monday.
Lytee Knox Hundley is facing felony assault charges for the vicious livestreamed beat-down Friday that left Wilfredo Arce with a broken eye socket and nose.
The disturbing attack unfolded around 6:15 p.m. inside NYCHA’s Tompkins Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant and was streamed on Facebook Live — prompting Hundley to turn himself in.
Brooklyn prosecutor Jackie Scarcella said Hundley’s mother allegedly witnessed Arce pop his head inside her apartment door, which was left open, as she sat on the couch.
As Arce waited near an elevator for a friend to bring him something, Hundley approached, saying that he “knows somebody that has heroin and cocaine,” Scarcella said.
He took off when Arce replied that he “doesn’t do that” — but returned shortly after, snarling, “My mother said you’ve been looking at her through the door.”
“That’s not possible, that wasn’t true,” Arce answered.
But the 31-year-old allegedly snapped, charging at the sexagenarian and knocking him to the floor with a right hook to his face and another blow to the head, the video shows.
The recording cuts off before Hundley allegedly continues to kick the victim in the face, Scarcella said.
The prosecutor requested $100,000 bail — but Brooklyn criminal court Judge Elizabeth Warin set it at $15,000 because he self-surrendered on Sunday.
Hundley faces additional charges of misdemeanor assault and attempted assault, as well as menacing and harassment. He hadn’t posted bail as of Monday afternoon.
In court, his lawyer Adrienne Wells said he’s a father of four children between the ages of 1 and 8 and works at Yachad helping elderly Jewish people with disabilities in a job readiness program.
Yachad couldn’t immediately confirm whether Hundley was an employee. Arce has since been released from the hospital. Hundley has two priors arrests, including for robbery at gunpoint, sources said. Wells declined to comment.
