Couple Behind Violent Sesame Place Attack Sentenced

A New York City couple who attacked a teenage Sesame Place worker last summer were sentenced by a Bucks County judge.

Troy McCoy, 41, and Shakerra Bonds, 32, both of Bronx, New York, were found guilty during a four-day trial in July of striking a then-17-year-old employee at the Middletown Township theme park on August 9, 2020. The assault on the boy came after a dispute over wearing a mask as part of the park and state’s COVID-19 mitigation measures.

McCoy was sentenced Monday by Bucks County Judge Wallace Bateman to five to 10 years of confinement and two years of probation. He was also ordered to attend anger management classes, never return to Sesame Place, have no contact with the victim, and pay $48,478 in restitution.

Bond was sentenced to four to 23 months behind bars and a year of probation. She was ordered to not have contact with the victim and barred from Sesame Place.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Bateman said the two had little remorse for the “violent, unprovoked assault on a defenseless teenager.”

The victim, who is now 19 years old, said the attack has left him feeling anxious, according to the Doylestown Intelligencer.

“My child did not deserve such a senseless beating,” the victim’s mother told the court, the newspaper reported. “Especially from two adults who have children themselves.”

The attack left the teen with a broken jaw in two places, causing it to be wired shut and forcing him to eat through a syringe for two weeks.

McCoy led the violent attack against the teen who was just doing his job working at Sesame Place.

McCoy had come into contact with the teen earlier in the day when he asked him to properly wear a mask. McCoy allegedly shot back that the teen was disrespecting him. The group met later at a ride when the teen was covering for a co-worker who had taken a bathroom break. At the ride, McCoy and Bonds got into it with the 17 year old, and as the teen who had only worked at Sesame Place for a few weeks tried to deescalate, the couple attacked him.

One Sesame Place employee testified that McCoy’s attack looked like a “Hulk smash” to the teen’s head.

Testimony in court indicated that McCoy put his hand on the neck of the injured teen and Bonds also struck another employee with her elbow.

McCoy, Bonds, and the other adults and kids with them at the theme park quickly left the tourist attraction as security and police responded to the attack.

McCoy’s attorney Brooks Thompson said during the trial that McCoy felt the teen was disrespectful to him, and he took the teen down after he saw him interacting with Bonds, his fiancé and the mother to his kids.

Bond’s attorney told the court she was trying to “act as a peacemaker,” adding her punch to the teen’s face was a form of “lawfully defending herself.”

McCoy was nabbed by the U.S. Marshal Service last August after the investigation by Middletown Township police and New York authorities. When deputy marshals went to arrest McCoy in the Bronx, he resisted and barricaded himself inside his home. Federal law enforcement made their way through the barricade and used a Taser to subdue the defendant, according to police.

The violent attack at Sesame Place garnered national attention.