Crazed homeless man busted in string of unprovoked UWS attacks: cops

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004

Crazed homeless man busted in string of unprovoked UWS attacks: cops​



By
Larry Celona,

Amanda Woods and

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon


September 15, 2022 11:30am
Updated









Assault victim, Ethan Maddi, describes being hit in an unprovoked attacked







A deranged homeless man who terrorized the Upper West Side in a spree of unprovoked attacks is finally behind bars — after slugging nearly a half-dozen unsuspecting victims in just one day, police said.
Elkin Ortiz, 27, was ordered held on $50,000 bail Thursday after getting arraigned on one felony and four misdemeanor assault charges.
“This is becoming a daily story,” a Manhattan cop told The Post. “A homeless person wandering the streets attacks innocent people. Only the neighborhood names change.”
Ortiz was arrested around 9:15 a.m. Wednesday in connection with the broad-daylight assaults that began around 11:10 a.m. Friday on West 65th Street near Central Park West and continued for nearly an hour, police said.
Ortiz had been out of state prison for less than one month and was still on parole on a May 2021 assault conviction when he carried out the.
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00:04 01:13
The victim was taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital to be treated for multiple facial fractures and was listed in stable condition.

Elkin OrtizOrtiz allegedly first targeted a 27-year-old man on West 65th Street near Central Park West on the Upper West Side.NYPD
In court Thursday, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Samantha Levitz said the victim suffered a shattered orbital bone and fractures to the bridge of his nose, and is scheduled for surgery next week.


About 20 minutes after that attack, Ortiz allegedly slugged a 35-year-old man who was walking along West Drive in Central Park, cops said.


But he wasn’t done.


Police said he also allegedly slapped a 26-year-old woman across her lips as she walked on the Bow Bridge in the park about 10 minutes later.






Surveillance video shows suspect in unprovoked UWS assault



In the first attack Friday, police said, he walked up to a 27-year-old man and slugged him several times in the right ear before taking off.


While both of the Central Park victims are white, authorities had no details on the exact circumstances that turned the assaults into hate crimes.


During his spree, Ortiz also allegedly struck a 32-year-old man in the face, causing bleeding to his nose, in a random attack at Fifth Avenue and East 79th Street on the Upper East Side, police said.


Police say Ortiz also pummeled a 23-year-old man waiting for a northbound train at 66th Street and Broadway in yet another unprovoked Upper West Side attack.


The victim was left with a small laceration, cops said.


Police said Ortiz was charged with assault in all five incidents, two of them classified as hate crimes.


“I was freaked out and also angry,” said one of the victims. “I’m 6-foot-4-inches in my 20s… I am a big guy and if this could happen to me it could happen to anyone.”


The victim, 23, told The Post he was sitting on a bench waiting for the uptown No. 1 train when his attacker walked up to him.


“I thought he was going to ask me something, directions,” he said. “Before I can realize what is happening he punched me in the face. Like square on my nose.”

Elkin OrtizTwo of Ortiz’s alleged assaults were classified as hate crimes, cops said.NYPD
He said he ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance, and still gets suffers dizziness from the attack.


Records show that Ortiz had already served more than a year behind bars in connection with a May 2021 second-degree assault conviction.


He was released this past August 16, with his post-release supervision set to expire in 2024, state Department of Correction records show.


His new arrest comes amid a rise in troubling random attacks in the Big Apple.





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“When we hear things from woke politicians — like end the carceral state, close Rikers and no new jails — it just means that more people like this will have to be back on the streets to meet the new made-up prison population goals,” said City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli, a Staten Island Republican.


“This is a case that highlights the high rates of recidivism from folks who commit violent crime,” Borelli added.


On the same day police busted Ortiz, another homeless vagrant was charged with punching a 71-year-old cancer survivor and hurling a bottle that hit a 1-year-old baby in the head on the Upper East Side.


Police said Antonio Marquez was surrounded by the baby’s dad and several doormen from the neighborhood until cops showed up and arrested him.


On Monday, an unidentified brute slammed a teenager in the face with a brick in Chelsea, landing the innocent victim in the hospital, police said.


“This is going to be a lawless city soon,” a veteran Manhattan police officer said Thursday. “Nobody’s going to want to be here because the crime is just out of control. They can’t get crime under control if they’re not going to help the police.


“The criminals do whatever they want and there’s no consequences,” he said.
 
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