Man, 43, attacks multiple people with a bat on two-hour New York City crime spree

A New York City man allegedly attacked multiple people on Saturday, leaving one unconscious and another with a broken arm, before carjacking two vehicles. 

The bat-wielding man was identified as 43-year-old Bryan Thompson. 

According to the New York Post, Thompson started his alleged violent spree around 7pm on Saturday in the subway station at Varick and Canal. 

A man was entering the station when Thompson allegedly knocked him unconscious after repeatedly hitting the victim with a bat. The victim suffered injuries to his shoulder, hand and forehead, the newspaper reported. 

Authorities said Thompson then struck a woman in the head as she entered the station. 

As he made his way out of the station, Thompson allegedly struck an MTA worker with the bat at least three times. 

From there, the rampage continued with the suspect hitting a driver with his weapon as he allegedly stole the victim’s SUV on 7th Avenue. 

According to the Post, Thompson crashed the SUV twice, once into the back of a car and into the left side of another vehicle. Those driver were not seriously injured. 

Thompson is said to have fled the scene on foot and smashed the rear windows at two other cars, injuring one woman who got some of the glass in her eye. 

While walking on West Broadway, Thompson allegedly broke the forearm of one victim and another suffered bruising and swollen leg. 

According to the Post, the man hijacked a Jeep after threatening the driver. 

It wasn’t until about 9pm that police arrested him on the West Side Highway.

He was taken to a local hospital after he was tased by officers. No charges have been confirmed as of Sunday afternoon.  

None of the victims have been identified. 

The incident comes as violent crime continues to plague New York City. 

Heralded as the safest big city in America in recent years, New York City closed out its bloodiest year in nearly a decade, grappling with a surge in homicides and a pandemic authorities say has helped fuel violence.

According to statistics released on Friday, New York City saw a 97 per cent jump in shootings and a 45 per cent increase in murders. 

That marks the largest increase since 2011. The number of people shot has more than doubled 2019’s total, nearing a 14-year high.

The NYPD reported 462 murders across the city for 2020. That’s a 143 difference from 2019. 

Shootings were also up with 1,531 incidents involving firearms in New York City. That’s 754 more than in 2019, officials said. 

Among the victims: a one-year-old boy sitting in his stroller at a summer cookout; a 53-year-old teacher walking his dog; and a 43-year-old mother looking out the window of her child’s third-floor bedroom. All three were killed by stray bullets.

The spike in violence started just as the pandemic began disrupting lives and shuttering businesses, and it reached a crescendo over the summer, as the city recorded an average 57 killings per month in July, August and September. 

By comparison, each of those months averaged 33 homicides in 2019. 

The police department has been dealing with a wave of retirements that Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said ‘couldn’t go any higher,’ fewer recruits because of budget cuts and a mid-year upheaval in how it roots out gun violence.

The NYPD in June disbanded its plainclothes anti-crime units, which focused primarily on seizing illegal guns, amid criticism of their aggressive tactics and involvement in a disproportionate number of police shootings and complaints. 

The change came amid what Shea described as ‘an endless supply of guns’.

In July, after a ‘Defund the Police’ protest became a full-blown occupation outside City Hall, the city shifted $1billion out of the police budget by moving school security functions back to the city’s school system, cutting overtime and eliminating a nearly 1,200-person recruiting class. 

Police officials have blamed bail reforms that went into effect at the start of 2020 for putting offenders back on the streets, but there’s little evidence people freed from jail are behind the new crimes.