NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A man visiting from Massachusetts was hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, after a being severely beaten in a fight on trendy MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village.

As CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reported, police said a bump in the street led to a brutal beating with a baseball bat and other weapons.

It all happened around 5 a.m. this past Sunday on the trendy strip of restaurants and shops on MacDougal Street near Bleecker Street.

Kevin McCarron, 24, of Andover, Mass., was out with a group of eight others early Sunday. They had just left Artichoke Pizza, 111 MacDougal St., when they bumped into some young men with Brooklyn and got into a quarrel.

Police said there were words, followed by fists. Then, at least two New Yorkers ran to a car and grabbed a bat and a tire iron.

Amateur video showed McCarron on the street being severely beaten. A passerby recorded video of the beating that appeared on YouTube, although the video has since been taken down.

The woman who took the video asked that CBS 2 hide her identity, but she did comment on what she saw.

“To take out serious weapons, you’re trying to hurt someone – really hurt someone,” she said.

The NYPD arrested two men — Hatem Farsakh, 24, and Sherif Rizk, 22, both of Brooklyn. They were charged with attempted murder, assault and gang assault.

The father of one of the suspects told Aiello his son did nothing wrong, and was shocked to learn the young man would face charges. In fact, Sherif Rizk claimed McCarron and his friends initially attacked the Brooklyn group.

“The other guys he said was so drunk, the other guys, beating up one of his friends, so he tried to stop them, so one of the guys punched him in the face,” said Rizk’s father, Ahmad Rizk, who added that his son had a serious eye injury.

But McCarron’s friends said he is not a troublemaker. He worked until last year at an Americorps program outside Boston, counseling young people.

“The type of violence that was imposed upon him was the kind of thing that he would work with our young people so hard to make sure that that’s not the path that they chose,” said his friend, April Lyskowsky.

The NYPD was working Wednesday to identify others who joined in beating McCarron, and charge them.

McCarron suffered a fractured skull and serious internal injuries. His brother, Patrick, suffered less serious injuries, CBS Boston reported.

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