Police detain suspect in arrow attack

BREAKING NEWS: Posted 3/21/09 at 7:15 am

By Kevin Deutsch and Kate Pastor

Police think they have their bowman.

Investigators tonight took a 27-year-old Riverdale man into custody for allegedly firing an arrow into a woman’s belly outside Schervier Nursing Care Center Sunday afternoon, a police source said.

Eric Collins was brought into the precinct shortly after 10 p.m. tonight and is expected to be charged in the attack. Mr. Collins lived in a small home at 3001 Independence Ave., right next door to the care
center. Investigators believe he fired the arrow through a hole in the bottom of the fence that separates his home from Schervier.

Police theorized the arrow might have careened off an object before striking Denise Delgado-Brown, who was hit in her stomach by the fiberglass, professional-grade, 30-inch arrow.

Investigators credited their aggressive canvassing with leading them to the home of the alleged bowman. Detectives originally thought the arrow might have been fired from a rooftop as far as 300 yards away.
In fact, the space between the fence and the front of Schervier appeared to be just a stone’s throw.

“Our canvassing operation led us to the location,” a police source said. “Turns out, there was a hole in the fence that the arrow traveled through.”

Mr. Collins was being held at the 50th Precinct station house while investigators milled about the property next to the care center.

Ms. Delgado-Brown suffered serious injuries but was expected to be released from St. Barnabas Hospital tonight or Friday.