NBC New York – by Marc Santia, Jonathan Dienst and Pei-Sze Cheng
The hammer-wielding stranger who attacked four people in separate ambushes within a span of six hours in Manhattan Monday has been fatally shot in a confrontation with police, authorities and law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation tell NBC 4 New York.
The suspect, an image of whom had been captured by surveillance cameras and released by police Tuesday, was killed at the scene near West 37th Street and Eighth Avenue around 10 a.m. Wednesday, sources said. Sources said he tried to attack a female officer and was shot.
The hammer was recovered at the scene. The condition of the officer the man attempted to attack wasn’t clear. Authorities had been looking for the suspect after identifying him Tuesday through facial recognition, an NYPD source said.
Heavy traffic delays were expected in the area.
The suspect attacked two women with a hammer in separate ambushes within minutes of each other near Union Square Monday, and NBC 4 New York first reported Tuesday that authorities believed he was also behind two similar attacks that occurred in Manhattan earlier that day.
All four victims were attacked in Manhattan within a span of five hours, the sources said. The suspect is believed to have first attacked a 20-year-old man with a hammer near Sixth Avenue and 35th Street shortly before 2 p.m. Monday, the sources said. He refused medical attention at the scene.
About three hours later, police sources say a suspect believed to be the same man swung a hammer at the head of a 34-year-old woman in Madison Square Park, near 27th Street and Madison Avenue. The sources say authorities are trying to determine whether the head of the hammer actually hit the woman or the suspect’s hand hit her as he brought down the weapon. Her condition wasn’t known.
The attacks near Union Square unfolded in a span of 10 minutes between 7:36 p.m. and 7:46 p.m. Monday and were committed by a man fitting the description of the suspect who menaced the woman on Madison Avenue earlier, the sources said.
One of those victims, a 28-year-old woman, was sitting on a bench in the park when she saw the suspect looking at her, police said. When she looked back, he took a silver hammer out of his bag and struck her, according to police.
The other woman attacked in that short time span, who is 33, was walking on West 17th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues when the stranger approached her from behind and hit her in the back of the head with the hammer, police said.
The woman on West 17th Street was taken to a hospital with a scalp injury, authorities said.
Both women attacked near Union Square were treated at Lenox Hill Hospital and released.
Follow Marc Santia on Twitter: @marcsantia4NY
It’s HAMMER-TIME!!!
Hammers have got to go. Starting tomorrow we need to hit the hardware stores and protest all hammers. Then we need to contact Washington and demand that background checks and registration of all purchased hammers. Why they are apt to run wild and start hammering every nail they see.
STOP THE MADNESS.
Bath salts?