A woman who made front-page tabloid headlines in New York over the weekend after allegedly knocking down a tourist in Times Square was arrested on an assault charge in Maine last year.

Deanne Ostbye, 30, of Tacoma, Wash., was arrested on charges of misdemeanor assault and reckless endangerment at 1:22 p.m. Friday outside 1535 Broadway after allegedly pushing Aleksandra Cvetkovic, 34, of Serbia to the pavement as Cvetkovic posed for a picture.

The incident was caught on camera by Cvetkovic’s friend Ivana Lisavac-Bloom. The New York Daily News published a sequence of photographs that show the blond tourist smiling at the camera as Ostbye rushed at her, then Cvetkovic on the ground bleeding from a wound to the head and Ostbye being arrested, a bemused expression on her face.

The Daily News reported that it is not known why Ostbye pushed Cvetkovic, who was on her first visit to the United States. The Daily News said Cvetkovic’s wound required three stitches. Police said the assault caused substantial pain to Cvetkovic, who had been staying with Lisavac-Bloom in Maryland.

Ostbye was to be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday, according to the Daily News.

Ostbye was arrested twice last year in Maine. The first arrest was in Portland on an assault charge on Jan. 11, 2012, at the Florence House shelter for women at 190 Valley St. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office arrest log listed Ostbye as a transient.

Five months later, on June 13, Ostbye was arrested in Skowhegan on a warrant for failure to appear in Cumberland County District Court on the assault charge. Her address was listed as 10 Bungalow St. in Skowhegan.

Further information about her arrests and whether she appeared in court was not immediately available.

Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:

bquimby@pressherald.com