(CNN)A Broadway singing coach who suffered a head injury last week after being pushed to the ground died Tuesday morning, her grandson said.
Barbara Maier Gustern, 87, was pushed from behind by an unidentified woman on the night of March 10 as she stood outside her apartment on Manhattan’s Lower West Side, police said. Gustern hit her head and was hospitalized. The suspect ran away, police said.
Gustern’s grandson, AJ Gustern, announced in a Facebook post Tuesday that she had died.
“We have lost one of the brightest little flames that ever graced this world,” he wrote. “Bobbob I love you, you are and always will be my heart.”
CNN reached out to Gustern for comment.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing, New York Police Department Sgt. Brendan Ryan told CNN.
“We are asking for the public’s help in solving this disgusting, shameful crime committed against a vulnerable, elderly woman who did nothing but walk the streets of New York City,” said Chief of Detectives James Essig of the NYPD, during a news conference on Tuesday. “So please — anyone with information on this individual or their whereabouts, call 1-800-577-TIPS.”
In a Facebook post on Saturday, AJ Gustern said his grandmother had been unconscious and intubated since the attack and suffered “traumatic damage to the left side of her brain.”
“If she wakes up, she will most likely have speech problems and may not be able to move her right side,” AJ Gustern said in the post. “It’s a very serious injury.”
Gustern’s death comes at a challenging time for New York as the city grapples with rising crime rates. In the first week of March, serious crimes are up 47% year-to-date compared to the same time last year, NYPD data shows. City officials have also called for new security measures to combat a recent spate of subway attacks after several people were assaulted or pushed onto the tracks.
CNN’s Emma Tucker and Mark Morales contributed to this report.
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