NEW YORK -- Last year, Nicole Barrett made a spur-of-the-moment decision: She was trading in her Texas roots to join the frenetic life in New York.
In recent weeks, she had finally adapted to the city's pace and people and was about to start a full-time position as an office manager, said Stacy McGlaun, her roommate.But Wednesday, the 27-year-old Barrett was clinging to life following a random attack by a man who smashed a 6-pound brick into her skull as she walked through Manhattan in the middle of the day.
Barrett was in critical condition after brain surgery at Bellevue Hospital.
"The ironic thing is we were just starting to feel comfortable here," McGlaun said. "We were just starting to think New York wasn't as bad as people think."
Barrett's attacker, who authorities said was possibly a homeless man who frequented the neighborhood, remained at large.
"He just came out of the blue and assaulted her," Police Commissioner Howard Safir said.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who met with Barrett's parents shortly after they arrived from Dallas, announced a $10,000 reward in the crime. Police have offered their own $1,000 reward.
Barrett was on her last day as a temporary worker on Tuesday. She was returning to her Madison Avenue office after getting a haircut when her attacker struck in front of several horrified witnesses.
The man slammed the 8-inch gray paving stone into the back of Barrett's head, muttered something and fled into the crowd on busy 42nd Street. Several bystanders gave chase but did not catch him.
The attack was the latest in a string of random, violent incidents in the city this year.
In January, a Manhattan woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train by a released mental patient. Three months later, a Bronx man lost both his legs in a similar incident. And in June, a 76-year-old Brooklyn man was fatally stabbed outside his home by a mentally ill woman.