Woman Accused of Shoving Barbara Maier Gustern Arrested for Manslaughter
Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern passed away at age 87 after being pushed to the ground outside of her apartment building in Manhattan.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Mar. 22, 2022
26 year-old Lauren Pazienza has been arrested and charged with fatally shoving Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern. Pazienza has been charged with manslaughter.
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Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern passed away at age 87 after being pushed to the ground by a woman outside of her apartment building in Manhattan. She died from a traumatic brain injury.
Gustern had coached the singer Debbie Harry, and recently coached the cast of the 2019 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!.
"I've never been hit so hard in my life," Ms. Gustern told her friend and colleague Barbara Bleier after the attack. Her condition quickly deteriorated and she was taken to the hospital before being transferred to Bellevue Medical Center.
As Ms. Gustern was in the hospital, her grandson AJ Gustern shared, "She's just a ball of light in a world that is often dark and doesn't make any sense," adding that if the woman who attacked her has a mental illness he prays that she receives help.
Gustern's funeral is scheduled for Saturday, March 26 at 2 p.m. ET at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.
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