A crazed man accused of beating and seriously injuring eight people used a Christmas tree branch to carry out the bloody rampage across Lower Manhattan, authorities said Monday.
Bryan Thompson, 43, used a heavy fir tree branch to bash an MTA worker in the head, beat an Uber driver bloody before stealing his cab, and terrorize a family walking the city with their young children, police sources said.
All told, he terrorized 10 people during a string of violent attacks that began in Tribeca’s Canal Street subway station around 6:30 p.m. and ended less than 30 minutes later after crashing a stolen car into a median on the West Side Highway, prosecutors said.
In asking the judge to order Thompson held without bail, Assistant District Attorney Melissa Carro said he injured eight of his ten victims and faces considerable jail time if convicted.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Michael Frishman heeded the call from prosecutors and ordered Thompson, who lives in Atlantic City, held without bail pending a psychiatric evaluation.
Frishman ordered the alleged attacker to stay quiet several times during the virtual proceeding as Thompson mumbled incoherently via video hook up from his jail cell.
“I’ve got some waste in my nose I want to get out. It’s irritating the hell out of me,” Thompson said, ignoring orders from his lawyer and the court to remain silent or put his microphone on mute.
Thompson was charged with four counts of assault, two counts of robbery, and two counts criminal mischief for the violent frenzy that left multiple victims with broken bones.
The disturbing sequence of attacks began when Thompson used the branch to beat a delivery man entering the subway station, knocking him unconscious, according to prosecutors.
After making his way down to the No. 1 train platform, Thompson whacked two others — hitting a woman on the right side of her head, according to court documents.
As he fled the station minutes later, Thompson allegedly attacked a 39-year-old MTA worker on the northeast corner of Varick and Canal Sts., leaving her with a head gash that required multiple staples to close up.
By the time he made it to the southwest corner of Thompson and Watt Sts., a frenzied Thompson struck a 37-year-old Uber driver putting things in the back of his car several times in the head — before stealing the man’s cab and driving off in it, court documents allege.
Thompson crashed the stolen vehicle into two parked cars a block and a half away before attacking his sixth victim, sitting in her 2006 Ford Taurus on Varick St. and Laight St. He smashed her windows, causing approximately $500 in damage, and tried in vain to pull the woman out of the driver’s seat.
He then set his sights on a seventh victim: a woman behind a 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee wheel. Thompson smashed the car’s windows with the tree branch causing the glass to shatter into the driver’s eyes, the victim’s husband told cops, prosecutors said.
Minutes later, on Sixth Ave. near W. Broadway, Thompson attacked a 42-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman walking with their kids, hitting the woman first in the legs, then breaking her husband’s arm as he tried to intervene, before moving on to his next victims.
Thompson found his 10th victim, a 33-year-old man in a parked 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee on West Broadway and Murray St., authorities said.
Thompson struck the vehicle with his bat and as the man bailed out and ran off stole the Cherokee and started driving, court papers show.
The calamitous tour of destruction finally ended when Thompson crashed into a median on the West Side Highway near W. 24th St. and then an NYPD cruiser. He refused to get out of the vehicle, leading cops to break a window and zap him with a Taser, authorities said.
Thompson is due back in court Jan. 19 and faces a possible sentence of 25 years behind bars if convicted.
“Remember to contact my mother,” he yelled out to his attorney before his arraignment concluded.
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