Man terrorizes the neighborhood for an hour, sending eight to the hospital

A man went on a violent rampage for nearly an hour throughout the neighborhood on Saturday evening, striking anyone who crossed his path with some kind of wooden bat — sending them all to the hospital — and car jacking two vehicles. The events started at the Canal Street 1 train stop, continued across Laight and Sixth and down West Broadway as far south as Murray Street and only ended when he crashed the second car in Chelsea and was tasered by police.

Starting at 6:35 p.m., the man, identified as Bryan Thompson, 43, of Atlantic City, first attacked three people in the subway station with a wooden weapon, police said. A 56-year-old man, an 18-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman all stated that they were waiting on the northbound #1 platform when they were attacked without provocation. The three victims had lacerations to the head and were transported to an area hospital in stable condition.

Thompson then exited the station and approached victim #4, a 39-year-old woman, near Varick and Canal and assaulted her with the same wooden weapon, causing bleeding and lacerations to the head.

The fifth victim was the 37-year-old male driver of a nearby parked car, who fled from his car when Thompson approached, leaving the engine running. Thompson then drove away at high speed, losing control and crashing the car on Laight and Sixth, hitting two parked, unoccupied vehicles.

The rampage continued. After fleeing the first car, he approached a Ford Taurus, breaking the rear window and attempting — unsuccessfully — to remove victim #6, the female driver.

Victim #7 was a 32-year-old woman operating a 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The suspect broke the side window of the car, causing minor lacerations from flying shards of glass and also unsuccessfully attempting to gain entry to the vehicle.

And then he keeps going. The next two victims are pedestrians, a 42-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman, whom he hits about the body with a (maybe the same) wooden weapon, breaking the man’s arm and leaving the woman with lacerations and bruises on her leg. He then fled on foot, approaching a 33-year-old male operator of a parked 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee in front of 66 W. Broadway, between Warren and Murray. The suspect began to strike the vehicle, causing the victim to jump out and flee for his safety.

It’s in that second car that Thompson is spotted at 7:12 p.m., driving northbound on the West Side Highway at 24th Street, across from the Chelsea Piers. The car lost control, hitting an NYPD radio vehicle and then stopping after hitting the center median. The man refused to exit the stolen vehicle, and responding officers were forced to break the driver side window and eventually taser him after he refused multiple orders to comply.

Thompson was then taken into custody and taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. He has been charged with robbery in the first degree; robbery in the second; six counts of assault in the second degree; resisting arrest; unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle; reckless driving; and two counts of criminal mischief.

 

26 Comments

  1. Good job Di Blassio. Great results you are leaving behind.

  2. So silly. DiBlasio cannot be held responsible for every crazy lunatic. Maybe we should blame Trump. Or Obama. or Hillary..
    Maybe you should blame Bryan Thompson. The actual perpetrator.

    • Oh no….this is 100% DeBalsio..!

    • He will be out in a day….sad city we live in…he should be put on death row and not see the day of light again for what he did…that is my personal opinion. dont care what his issues are. never allowed in public again as long as this piece of garbage is alive.

    • Darla, DeBlasio’s policies, approach, inaction, absenteeism, can all be blamed for the mess this city is in. there is no plan for homeless, has instructed police to be hands off, defunds the police, abolishes anti crime unit, moves homeless into hotels in residential ares, on and on I could go. these incidents are becoming daily occurrences with no end or action in sight. DeBlasio spending his time these days trying to find something for the Mrs. to do and dancing in times square on New Years Eve. Worst Mayor Ever and I am a born and raised NYC and have seen a few!

  3. I disagree.
    It is the fundamental responsibility of any government to protect its citizens. The mayor is in charge of the police, who he has tasked to provide that protection on the local level. He directly controls how effective they are (or are not). As such, he bears full responsibility for not adequately protecting every single one of these victims.

    • A lifetime NY’er and have seen many mayors.. Starting with Koch to Dinkins to Giuliani to Bloomberg.. and now De Blassio!

      I completely agree that he has been the worst of all I have lived through…
      He seems more interested in making liberally pleasing statements than truly stepping in and doing the hard work needed to keep NYC Safe for all of it’s residents.

      This was already an ongoing issue but COVID has certainly accelerated the pace of decline.

      As far as the best? Although he’s quite clearly crazy right now (Not sure WHAT happened to him)…

      Rudy Giuliani in my opinion did the most to help turn NYC around in the late 90’s If anyone remembers it all started with an increased police presence – Making NYC safe.. after which more people wanted to not only work but LIVE here as well…

  4. This is really poorly written. Journalism needs to be proofread and edited.

    • Agree, the quality of this page is far from what it used to be. Its not even journalism, just trash posting.

      We should definitely Defund the Police so more of this happens.

    • what a mean thing to say.

    • A man goes around our neighborhood violently attacking people and you’re worried about proofreading, Eve? Also Jimmy from the Trib, this is a blog, it’s not journalism. A blog can share facts with opinion and in any way the author chooses. You’re both incredibly rude. How about we worry about the victims instead?

  5. The city and the crime is over the top. Deblasio and his bail reform and defunding the police are the reason. Cops do not want to do their jobs because of the Mayor’s hatred for them. Call 911 you will wait a long time for a response by NYPD. Sad and true. No one is accountable for any crimes that are committed right now. They have the get out of jail free card. You can assault’ and rob someone and get away with it. Out on the street to do it again. Our Governor turned his back on the city also. He is only worried about Covid, which he should be. Also shutting and fining our businesses, Which need to survive. But really don’t give a damn about our city and the uptake in crime. Deblasio putting men homeless men alot of them sex offenders in hotels make shift shelters in our neighborhood. Without us even approving with community board meetings. We need to fight for this not to happen. Our safety is not important to the mayor. Only Mentally Ill sex offenders homeless men. Please go to Downtown NYCers for safer streets. Contribute to the fight to save downtown. We have problems with numerous shelters coming to our neighborhoods. Basically mentally ill homeless men ( some sex offenders) right near our homes and schools. We are fighting the Radison hotel which the mayor did behind our backs. Also, another men’s shelter 105 Washington Street with no cerfew sex offenders which the building was bought and opening 2022. Without any knowledge to our community. Sad and shameful. The rape in Kips Bay was a man who was in the men’s shelter in Bellevue. If we don’t fight we will be prisoners in our own homes. The city is in free fall.

  6. We elected DeBalsio (twice!). He really hasn’t deviated from what he said he was going to do. So who is to blame? We re-elect our city council, state Assembly Members and Senators, Governor, etc even though they are implementing the policies that are destroying our quality of life. We have a handful of candidates for Mayor, do any of them have a legitimate plan to decrease the alarming rise in crime? Yet we will accept this and go and vote for them anyway.

    Sorry Eve if this is not written to your high standard of journalism. It is just my thoughts.

  7. I arrived in 1972 when there were few police to be seen. People walked around with “mugger money” to pay off thugs. The first real change in police came under Mayor Dinkins who got enough Federal Money to create “Safe Streets, Safe Cities” and put about 3000 cops walking local beats on every corner. He also brought in Bill Bratton and his broken window theory. Google it. Prior to that cops sat in their cars, as terrified as we were. It was called “cooping.” We have good cops and bad cops, good mayors and bad. The best Mayors hire the best Chiefs of Police. If our city isn’t safe. nothing much else matters.

  8. One BIG issue not being talked about above is what can we do to make things better. I think we need to elect a new mayor with a commitment to keeping the city safe as a critical issue over other priorities all else equal. Ray MacGuire perhaps has shown the most interest here? Other views?

    If we all want to live in a better, safer area – we need to fix the problem by electing a leader with that agenda.

  9. I pray for everyone’s sake that you take a really hard look at those running Nov 2021. Start reading up now on who they are, question every statement and their position on the things we all know are important in our beloved city. I implore all to do this. And don’t vote Democrat just because. Don’t be complacent. Debozo is a disgusting human as is his wife. There are some that have expressed publicly they are running and those very same hold similar positions as debozo. Don’t assume that just because he can’t run doesn’t mean there aren’t people that hold the same beliefs, ideologies and positions as he does. Seriously do your homework. If you love this city, please!

  10. I first moved to NYC in 1972. I left in 1978 after I was assaulted for the fourth time. A million other New Yorkers also fled during the 70s and 80s, mostly to escape crime. Hollywood made movies like “Death Wish,” “Escape from NY” and “Fort Apache.”

    Mayor Giuliani rescued the City by actually doing something about crime and people moved back. Eventually NY became a wonderful place so I returned in 2009.

    When De Blasio was elected on a social justice platform many predicted “Back to the Future.” They were denounced as “racists.” Bail reform and the elimination of stop and frisk and broken windows policing have had a predictable effect.

    The out migration started 3 years before Covid. According to Zillow my Tribeca apartment is now worth way less than I paid for it. All of the current Mayoral aspirants are calling for “equity” and “justice.” Fuhgeddabout safety. Goodbye NYC.

    • I have a contact at the NY Post that would like to speak with you regarding your post, would you like to do it?

    • This is so true! We will probably not have another Republican mayor in this city for a long time (though the last 2 did wonderful things for the city). I’m just praying the right Democrat candidate runs. Will be following this race very closely…

  11. The city needs to help the mentally ill. If they don’t this will never end. The mentally ill, need to be in homes, not shelters. They need to be in a program that doctors watch them and get them on the right meds, then put in homes where they can get their meds and made sure they take their meds. Our jails and shelters are filled with the mentally ill and it is getting us nowhere. So until we deal with the mentally ill this is not going to stop.

  12. I left NYC in the 70s because of the crime.

    I believe the crime now is 10x worse. It started with not arresting men pulling out their penis to pee in front of children

    And not arresting subway fare beaters

    After the looters were released with charges, it has become a free for all.
    4 men in last 2 week have defacated right in front of me 2x in subway, 2x midtown in middle of day in broad daylight

    I am Irish Catholic democrat but I will never vote democrat again
    Especially for mayor or governor
    Must have law and order
    Aunt was in a nursing home for temporary period recovering from hip surgery in which killer Cuomo put 10 covid patients

    My aunt a healthy 70 year old was dead in 2 weeks

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