NYC hatchet attack suspect under evaluation after arrest, authorities say
Police said the suspect has four active bench warrants and one active arrest warrant
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A suspect in New York City was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation after being arrested Wednesday in connection with a brutal hatchet attack against a man at a Chase Bank ATM on Sunday evening, authorities said.
Aaron Garcia, 37, was being sought Tuesday in connection with the hatchet attack when he was then accused of threatening another victim with a hammer – and using the tool to smash the windows of several parked cars and a restaurant, police said.
Police took Garcia into custody Tuesday night and transported him to Bellevue Medical Center, authorities said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NYC SLASHING: MAN BRUTALLY ATTACK BY HATCHET-WIELDING MANIAC AT BANK ATM
Aaron Garcia, 37, was taken into custody Tuesday night after a hatchet attack Sunday, authorities say. (Yonkers police)
Police in Yonkers, north of New York City, said Garcia had four active bench warrants and one active arrest warrant on charges including criminal contempt, harassment, aggravated harassment, and stalking, WNBC-TV of New York City reported.
The charges appeared to be domestic in nature and stemmed from several arrests in 2020 and earlier this year, according to the station.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bank confrontation
On Sunday the suspect, wearing a black surgical mask, was captured on video walking into the Chase Bank in Lower Manhattan around 5:30 p.m., holding a hatchet in his right hand – when suddenly he lunged at the victim, Miguel Solorzano, 50, and sliced one of his legs from behind.
A struggle ensued as Solorzano attempted to protect himself with a backpack before Garcia appeared to land several blows with the hatchet, drawing blood. With the victim out of frame in the video, Garcia was later seen smashing ATM screens before dropping the hatchet and walking away.
Police at the scene of a hatchet attack in New York City. (William Miller/FOX News)
NYC SLASHING: MAN BRUTALLY ATTACK BY HATCHET-WIELDING MANIAC AT BANK ATM
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"He hit me. In the bank, he hit me," a stunned Solorzano told the New York Daily News on Tuesday, speaking in Spanish from his hospital bed.
His friend said he needed two surgeries after the bloody attack, according to the paper. When asked if he wanted to see a video of the incident, Solorzano's voice shook.
"Please, please … "I don’t want to see it," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A relative told the Daily News that Garcia served in Iraq, but was never the same upon his return.
"He was a little off-center. He was in combat. All he would say is ‘I saw dead bodies,’" the relative said.
On Wednesday, Curtis Sliwa, the city's Republican nominee for mayor, accused outgoing term-limited Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio of not doing enough to address crime in the city and the problem of mental illness.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}3 STABBED ON NYC SUBWAY PLATFORM IN EARLY MORNING ATTACK
"Where are they doing outreach? Who have they brought to a psychiatric facility? Who have they brought to renew the prescriptions these men and women desperately need?" Sliwa said, according to New York City's WCBS-TV.
Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams, a former police officer, tweeted that the attack was the result of "multiple failures of a dysfunctional government."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Protecting innocent New Yorkers and preventing these incidents—not just reacting to them—must be the immediate goal of law enforcement and our mental health services," Adams wrote.
Meanwhile, Garcia's mother, Sarah Garcia, said that her son received some mental-health treatment at a Veterans Administration hospital — but it didn't improve his declining condition, the New York Post reported.
"I would bring it up, saying, ‘What is it the doctor told you?’ He’d say, ‘They think they’re evaluating me, but I’m evaluating them,’" the 64-year-old mom told the paper.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You know, pure madness. But he was always articulate that way," she added.
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Garcia, from Yonkers, New York, was charged with attempted murder and assault following the hatchet attack on Sunday, reports said. It was unclear whether he had a lawyer.