Hoboken Man May Lose Eyesight After New Year's Eve Assault, Police Say

A Hoboken resident who told police he was attacked by six teenagers on New Year's Eve, may lose sight in one eye, police said on Thursday. 

Spencer Perez and Rolando Santiago, both 18, from Hoboken, and four male juveniles — two 17-year-olds from Hoboken, a 17-year-old from Jersey City, and a 16-year-old from Hoboken — were arrested by Hoboken police and charged with aggravated assualt and endangering an injured victim, police said. 

The victim, 50, told police he walked home around 2:30 a.m. on New Year's Eve after parking his car in an uptown garage. As he walked westbound on 12th Street, between Hudson and Washington, he noticed a group of six men who had just come from a party.

Police said that the victim immediately thought, "this looks like trouble." The men, however, kept walking without interacting or provoking the group of young men, police said. 

He was then attacked from the back, and the six men started to beat him, police said.

After the assault, the men allegedly left the victim in the street.

The victim's wife thought he had gone missing when he didn't return home, police said. She later found out that he was in the hospital. A Hoboken ambulance worker, who had transported the victim, called in the accident to police headquarters.

The case now goes to trial. The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office may prosecute the juveniles as adults, police said, due to the serious nature of the attack.