A 26-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of an 87-year-old Broadway singing coach who was pushed to the ground on a New York City street. Lauren Pazienza, of Port Jefferson, Long Island, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Barbara Maier Gustern, which police say was the result of an “unprovoked senseless assault.”
Police had released surveillance video of a woman they were looking for in connection with the case.
#Break: Police arrest a suspect who fatally shoved 87-year-old beloved singing coach Barbara Gustern. https://t.co/VjI4ekAzIt
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) March 22, 2022
Gustern hit her head and was critically injured on March 10 when a woman crossed the street, came up behind her and pushed her to the ground on West 23rd Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. She died on March 15.
Online court records did not list an attorney who could speak for Pazienza. Information about their charges was not immediately available.
Friends told The New York Times that Gustern had just left her apartment to see a student’s performance after hosting a rehearsal for a cabaret show at her apartment.
Gustern had been well known in the theater world for decades.
She has worked with singers ranging from the cast of the 2019 Broadway revival of the musical Oklahoma! to experimental theater artist and 2017 MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Taylor Mac, who told the Times she was “one of the great people I’ve met.”
Her late husband, Joe Gustern, was also a singer, with credits including The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
“She’s the most inspiring force in my life,” her grandson, AJ Gustern, told CBS New York last week.
Gustern’s mother died when he was young, so his 87-year-old grandmother became his second mother.
“I would go to shows, hang out with their students,” he said.
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