Hammer Attacker Arrested In 2013 For Assaulting Officer In Riverside Park

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

The mentally ill man shot last week wanted for several hammer attacks has several park-related arrests including one in 2013 for assaulting a police officer in Riverside Park, NYC Park Advocates has learned.

David Baril, 30, was arrested after he assaulted a police officer trying to issue him a summons for being in Riverside Park after dark.

He attacked the officer with sharp object, according to police. 

In 2008 he was arrested inside a Bronx Park after he was found to be in possession of a stun gun. 

Police believe he may have been homeless, living in parks and subways since January after he voluntarily left the mental health facility in upper Manhattan. Baril doesn't appear to have had a fixed address since.

Baril has eight prior arrests most in the Bronx where he lived.  Other arrests for assault, cocaine possession and turnstile jumping.

Baril was shot in midtown Manhattan Wednesday morning while attacking a female police officer.

Two eagle-eyed officers on patrol spotted the suspect and began following him when suddenly he pulled out a hammer and violently attacked the female officer. 

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UPDATE: Police Shoot Man Wanted In Hammer Attacks

A Walk In The Park - May 13, 2015  - By Geoffrey Croft

Union Sq. Park Hammer Suspect Tied To Earlier Madison Square Park
Attack And Two Others

A Walk In The Park  - May 13, 2015  - By Geoffrey Croft

Woman, 28, Attacked With Hammer In Union Square Park

A Walk In The Park - May 12, 2015  - By Geoffrey Croft

UPDATE: Police Shoot Man Wanted In Hammer Attacks

Police officer Lauren O’Rourke clutches the back of her head as David Baril, 30, the suspect wanted in a series of hammer attacks lays in the middle of the street at 37th Street and Eighth Avenue after being shot by officer Geraldo Casaigne Wednesday morning. (Photo: Rich Docherty)

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

This morning a police officer shot David Baril, the 30-year-old suspect wanted in a series of hammer attacks on innocent bystanders after he turned on them according to police.

Video released by police show a fast acting police officer coming to the aid of his female partner who is being pursued by the attacker wildly swinging a hammer in the middle  of Eighth Avenue at 37th Street. 

The incident occurred a little after 10:00am. 

A male and female officer on patrol spotted the suspect and began following him along Eighth Avenue near 38th street when he abruptly turned around and pulled out a hammer and went after the female officer.

"When he turned around he violently started swinging the hammer at the female officer," said Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Aubry.  


David Baril, 30, wanted in Monday's Union Square Park attack and others. (Photo: DCPI)


"As he's swinging the female officer is backtracking into the intersection of 37th & 8th. Her partner, the male officer sees her struggling and he fires his weapon four times at this individual, striking him twice," said Aubry.

Baril was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center where is in critical but stable condition.   

Police say he has multiple prior arrests and a history of psychological problems.

“I want to commend those two officers for their actions this morning," Police Commissioner William Bratton said.  

"First in seeing the suspect and approaching him. And then secondly for the quick action on the part of the officers, but particularly the male officer, who based on the preliminary video I viewed, quite possibly saved his partner’s life by shooting the suspect.”

There was a heavy uniform police presence last night in Union Square Park as police canvased the area looking for the suspect in Monday's attacks.  A twenty-eight-year-old woman was sitting alone on a park bench by Evelyn's Playground in Union Square Park when she was attacked from behind by the deranged man. (Photo: Geoffrey CroftNYC Park Advocates) 

Read More:

Officer Shoots Hammer-Wielding Man in Midtown Manhattan
New York Times - May 13, 2015 - By J. David Goodman

SUSPECT IN MANHATTAN HAMMER ATTACKS WOUNDED

IN POLICE-INVOLVED SHOOTING

WABC - May 13, 2015 - By Tim Fleischer

Police Shoot Hammer-Wielding Man In Midtown
WCBS - May 13, 2015

Union Sq. Park Hammer Suspect Tied To Earlier Madison Square Park
Attack And Two Others

A Walk In The Park  - May 13, 2015  - By Geoffrey Croft

Woman, 28, Attacked With Hammer In Union Square Park

A Walk In The Park - May 12, 2015  - By Geoffrey Croft

Union Sq. Park Hammer Suspect Tied To Earlier Madison Square Park Attack And Two Others

There was a heavy uniform police presence in Union Square Park on Tuesday evening.

Police have identified a Bronx man wanted in a series of hammer attacks in Manhattan on Monday.  (Photos: Geoffrey CroftNYC Park Advocates) Click on Images to enlarge

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

Police have identified the man wanted in a series of hammer attacks.

Police believe the hammer-wielding man who attacked a woman in Union Square Park on Monday night also struck a 34-year-old woman two hours earlier in Madison Square Park.

The suspect wanted in Monday's Union Square Park attack is also tied to an earlier assualt in Madison Square Park. (Photo: DCPI)


Authorities now believe he is responsible for at least four attacks within six hours hours. 

There was a heavy uniform police presence in Union Square Park on Tuesday evening.

Wanted posters could be found on virtually every lamp post surrounding the park. 

The twenty-eight-year old victim was sitting alone on a park bench by Evelyn's Playground in Union Square Park when she was attacked from behind by the deranged man.

 “I was walking to the train station in Union Square and someone came up behind me and yelled something and then the next thing I know I was struck in the head,  she told CBS news.  

"I initially I thought I got punched, but later on when I looked at my hand I was bleeding.”

She has four staples in her head but is expected to be alright.

Police have identified a Bronx man with a psychological and arrest history as a suspect, the Daily News reported.  

According to the paper they were able to get his name through a facial recognition hit from a photograph of the attacker.



Police on patrol near Evelyn's Playground in Union Square Park where a twenty-eight-year old victim was attacked from behind by the deranged man.

Read More:

NBA All-Star Promo Concert Featuring Mystery "A List" Performer Not Welcome At Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza

Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza (North) 23rd and Fifth Avenue. Residents and businesses are upset over a large promotional concert scheduled for February. The Plazas were created by the Department of Transportation and designed for passive use. It is CB 5's understanding that these types of events would not be returning to the Plaza after a smaller NBA event was allowed which upset residents and business owners.  (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge)

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

Flatiron residents and businesses are incensed over a proposed concert in the Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza scheduled for Feb 12th.

An NBA All-Star weekend tie-in promotional event featuring an “A-list” entertainer which the city refuses to disclose will feature entertainers and athletes and is expected to draw 10,000 attendees.

Fifth Avenue and Broadway traffic will be shut down and vehicles diverted for hours in order to accommodate the proposed 45 minute concert. Critics counter that the event would be much better situated in Times Square.   CB 5 called on the city to "put an end to out-of-scale commercial events in spaces that are far too small or otherwise inappropriate."

Organizers will announce the performer's name a week before the event and begin distributing tickets.  Several Community Board members speculated at a recent meeting that the entertainer might be hip-hop mogul Jay Z whose club 40/40 is a half a block away on W. 25th street and whose company Roc Nation is involved with producing the TNT cable channel festivities.   

According to the city VIP's are expected to be a part of the event.   During the meeting a board member it was also pointed out that Jennifer Lopez and Chelsea Clinton are area residents (along with NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon) who all live a half a block away in the same building. 

The special event would take over the Pedestrian Plaza for at least 4 days between February 10th-14th and wreak havoc on Fifth Avenue and Broadway traffic, including shutting down traffic for hours all for a 45 minute concert.  

The event will require many street closures and vehicle diversions: 5th Avenue and Broadway from 23rd Street at least to 26th Street and possibly beyond, 24th and 25th Streets between Broadway and 6th Avenue, and the length of 26th Street from Madison Avenue all the way to 6th Avenue.    

The massive production will require moving over 100 granite blocks and standing planters, a CitiBike docking station, A BID information booth, trash receptacles and two solar-powered charging stations. Many of the items are expected to be relocated to the southern pedestrian plaza btw. 23 & 22nd Street rendering the southern plaza equally unusable for the four days required for the event.

The production would require moving a CitiBike docking station.

The sidewalks on the western side of Madison Square Park will also be closed to facilitate an emergency lane for authorized personnel.

Community Board  5 blasted the proposed commercial festivities calling it, "grossly inappropriate for the space," at its last Parks Committee meeting.   

The board was baffled why this was not being proposed for Fr. Duffy Square in Times Square as it was originally proposed instead of being merely a backup location, which the board called, "a far more appropriate location for an extremely large,  entertainment-focused commercial event. "

The Board fired off a letter last week to Mayor De blasio stating that is was "perplexed about why an event of the size and nature of this example is being shoehorned into a space where it so clearly does not belong." 

The event will install six lighting towers, audio and video equipment resulting in excessive amplified sound.   The staging for the event will require that all of the open space and all of the amenities presently enjoyed by the public in the north Pedestrian Plaza - including DOT’s recently installed public art program to be off limits.  

The set-up will be twenty-four hours a day beginning at 12:01 AM on February 10, with three active overnights involving the use of forklifts and heavy equipment operating in close proximity to residential buildings and scores of local businesses. A steel stage structure 60-feet wide is to be constructed over an existing fire hydrant on top of the Pedestrian Plaza, rendering it unusable the board noted.

The CB 5's understanding that these types of events would not be returning to the Plaza after a smaller NBA event upset residents and businesses. 

In October 2013,  TNT was allowed to take over the Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza for its NBA pregame studio show for the opening night of the basketball season,  part of a three-day celebration. They installed a basketball court,  NBA 2K14 video game kiosks. A large videoboard perched 30 feet above Broadway and Fifth Avenue for fans to watch the show which included live coverage of the Miami Heat's championship ring ceremony.

"Why are we here talking about this,"  Clayton Smith, chair of the parks committee asked Emil Lissauer, the Deputy Executive Director of Street Activity Permit Office (SAPO).  

Smith stated that the board got a commitment from the city not to hold these types of large scale events in the future after the previous event.

"I don't remember it that way," Mr. Lissauer replied. 

Mr. Smith pointed out that this event is even bigger. 


Worth Square- between 24-25th St.  The proposed concert area would extend up to 26th Street and include Broadway and Fifth Avenue. 

The SAPO representative also said area residents and businesses would be given priority to tickets but did not say how many tickets would be available or how they would be distributed to the pre-ticketed event.  

The representative also said the Parks Department requested an eight-foot high fence be erected so that the public cannot view the event from Madison Square Park, an idea that the parks committee chair described as, "gulag weird."

A Parks Department spokesperson disputed SAPO's claim regarding who requested it.

"Parks did not request this fence. It was a suggested solution to a concern we raised of protecting plant beds in areas where site lines might allow viewing to an otherwise ticketed event," said Sam Biederman.  

At the meeting  Mr. Lissauer also said that there was a possibility that at least part of the park property would be utilized on the park's west side.

"The western sidewalks of Madison (Square Park)  will be closed to facilitate an emergency lane for authorized personnel – these areas are not being used for production or viewing purposes," the Parks Department spokesperson said. 

The community board also did not appreciate that the Street Activity Permit Office rep did not present a site plan at the January 5th meeting. 

In their letter to Mayor De blasio the Board said they, "unanimously found that the event is inappropriate in terms of scale, duration, volume, and impact for this dense commercial and residential area of our district, and will result in an unacceptable impact on neighbors and businesses.

Community Board Five strongly stands in opposition to this and, frankly, any event of this scale in this pedestrian plaza, whose creation by the Department of Transportation was designed for passive use.  We do not support the usurping of this public space, the dislocation of all of its public amenities, and the considerable inconvenience to the neighborhood’s stakeholders by events of this size and magnitude, " the January 9th letter stated.                  

The Board was also not pleased that the city was bypassing submitting a special event application for park activities which the Community Board would normally have the opportunity to officially weigh in on and vote even though the event would be utilizing two parks properties - Worth Square  -  and the sidewalk in Madison Square Park. 

When asked how the applicants were able to get away with this the Parks Department spokesperson said the application for the backup site in Times Square was amended after the January 5 Parks Committee meeting. 

"The application requesting Duffy Square was amended to list Madison Park.  It is our practice not to require applicants to file anew if a requested venue is decided against or unavailable; rather we allow an amendment to the application." 

The Flatiron/23rd Street BID will get a "significant fee," according to the SAPO representative.  The city confirmed that the Parks Department was also getting a fee but that nether fees had been worked out yet.

The sidewalks on the western side of Madison Square Park will also be closed to facilitate an emergency lane for authorized personnel.  An eight-foot high fence will be erected to prevent the non-ticketed from being able to see the event, an idea the CB 5's Parks Committee chair described as, "gulag weird."

The Community Board also questioned why the Street Activity Permit Office is being given sole discretion to make final determinations of what special events are appropriate for pedestrian plazas instead of the Department of Transportation which is the city agency responsible for their oversight.

The board stated that no mechanism had been put in place to ensure proper public review of large events in the district’s pedestrian plazas and said that to date, there have been no modifications to the existing procedure by which the Street Activity Permit Office manages the placement of large events in these public spaces.

They also ripped into the fact that there was no mechanism for public review of these events.

"Residents and business owners in our district are deprived of any notification of proposed events in these public spaces. Nor does the community have any opportunity to make their voice heard at a public hearing, as they have come to expect from event applications that are submitted to the Parks Department for events that take place on parkland. This is a systemic dysfunction that it is past time to address," the letter said.  

They called on the city to "put an end to out-of-scale commercial events in spaces that are far too small or otherwise inappropriate."

Despite repeated requests for comment  the DOT refused to answer questions from A Walk in the Park.   The city says SAPO is still reviewing the site plan,  including any items the BID and Community Board have raised.

 The massive production will require moving over 100 granite blocks and standing planters. 

Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza (South) Many of the items moved from across the street to accomidate the event are expected to be relocated to the southern pedestrian plaza btw. 23nd & 22nd Street, rendering this plaza equally unusable over the four days.

Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza (South) 

The proposed concert area would include Broadway (L) and  Fifth Avenue (R) and the Parks Department's Worth Square between 24-25th St. seen in the background.

Veterans Day In City Parks

The 107th Infantry Memorial by Karl Lllava (1889 - 1954) in Central Park at 67th street and Fifth Avenue is adorned with wreaths surrounded by beautiful Fall colors.  The memorial is dedicated to the men who served in the 107th New York Infantry Regiment during World War I. The sculpture - made of bronze with a granite base - was dedicated on September 29,  1927.

The more than 270 military memorials found in city parks are a poignant and permanent reminder of the supreme sacrifices our nation's veterans have made in the service of our  country.

Photos: (Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge

City-Wide

By Geoffrey Croft

New York City Parks once again played an important role in reminding the public of the ultimate sacrifices the nation's veterans have made throughout the country's history.

War memorials account for more than a fourth of the more than 1,000 monuments found in the 29,000 acres of city park land. 

The park's more than 270 military memorials function as permanent reminders in bronze and stone, as well as landscape art of the steep price our nation, and our metropolis has paid for the preservation of its security and freedoms, " according to the Parks Department.

The city's official commemoration began in Madison Square Park at 10:00am with the annual wreath-laying ceremony attended by veterans and elected officials at the Eternal Light Monument (Thomas Hastings 1860-1929) to honor those who gave their lives.     

The ceremony concluded at 11:11 a.m.  kickws off the Veterans Day parade.  

The opening ceremony for New York City's annual Veterans Day Parade,  the largest in the nation, was held in Madison Square Park where wreaths were laid under the Eternal Light Monument to honor the fallen. 

  

The monument - erected to COMMEMORATE THE FIRST HOMECOMING  OF THE, VICTORIOUS ARMY AND NAVY UNITED STATES was dedicated on Armistice Day,  November 11,  1923,  and each year is the site where the annual Veterans Day parade begins.

The monument is dedicated IN MEMORY OF THOSE / WHO HAVE MADE / THE SUPREME, SACRIFICE / FOR THE TRIUMPH OF / THE FREE PEOPLES / OF THE WORLD/

The theme of this year’s parade was “Land of the Free/Home of the Brave,”  honoring the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key's  “The Star-Spangled Banner.” 

The public pay respects at the Eternal Light Monument in Madison Square Park. 

The parade marks the 95th anniversary of the first Veterans Day Parade in 1919 to commemorate the first Armistice that ended World War 1, a year earlier.

The Armistice was declared on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, of what was supposed to be "the war to end all wars."  

The event also comes five months after the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Vietnam veteran Jimmy Scannapieco, 65 of South Beach Staten Island plays with 8-year-old Laya, an American Pit Bull Terrier at Madison Square Park after the ceremonies.  Mr. Scannapieco was wounded in 1970 when his eye was struck with shrapnel while serving in Da Nang. 

Across town in Riverside Park the deteriorating Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument did not deter 82-year-old U.S. Navy veteran Robert Schron and his son from visiting.

Visitors were allowed inside the rarely opened interior and Urban Park Rangers gave tours of the building and the surroundings. 

"It brings back a lot of memories thinking about the guys I was with," said Mr. Schron who served during the Korean War and still has lunch once a week with a fellow serviceman he reconnected with while visiting London. 

Visitors were allowed inside the rarely opened interior Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park at 89th Street and Riverside Drive on this Veterans Day. Budget cuts have severally crippled the Urban Park Ranger programs over the years. 

An Urban Park Ranger vistis with Korean War and U.S. Navy veteran Robert Schron.  

Mr. Schron grew up a few blocks away on 92nd Street and said he last visited the interior of the building when he was 8. 

"It looks a lot smaller,"  he said taking in the circular white marble walls underneath the monument's domed ceiling 95 feet above after a 74-year absence.  

Built in 1902 at a cost of two-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars the historic  monument commemorates the Union Soldiers and Sailors lost during the Civil War. 

The project had at least one wealthy detractor,  the widowed daughter-in-law of the Dakota's builder who got a temporary injunction against building the monument. She lost.  


The dilapidation is clearly visible.   The veined white marble has been carelessy painted over to cover up many areas of marked by graffiti including on the Corinthian columns.  The ornate eagle perched above the monument's entrance is missing its beak.   

A lack of dedicated maintenance and capital funds from the government coupled with vandalism however have clearly taken their toll over the years on the 112 year-old monument. 

The beautiful white marble has been painted over in numerous areas in a poor attempt to cover up of graffiti.   The ornate eagle perched above the monument's entrance is missing its beak.  Granite replaced the marble around the circular base years ago. 

Severe water damage is visible on the mosaic floor inside.

Severe water damage has damaged the mosaic floor.

Efforts to restore the building have fallen through over the years.  And like much of the park system the agency is increasingly relying on the predicable underfunded public/private partnerships for virtually all of the Parks Department's art and antiquities conservation needs.

"Beautiful architecture," said Mr. Schron.  

"It really is a shame they don't take better care of it. It's supposed in honor of." 

An Urban Park Ranger in training gives an interpretive tour at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park  on Veterans Day.   Budget cuts have severally crippled the Urban Park Ranger program over the years, they are down to only a handful of postions.


Read More:

Seeking a Little Respect for a Long-Suffering Monument

New York Times - July 10,  2005 - By Seth Kugel 

Streetscapes/Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument,  at 89th Street and 
Riverside Drive; A 1902 Memorial to the Fallen of the Civil War

New York Times - October 13,  2002 - By Chistopher Gray

Madison Sq. Park Assault: Park Employee Attacked By Crazed Dog Owner While Locking Up Park

Manhattan

A crazed dog owner attacked a park worker attempting to lock up Madison Square Park, NYC Park Advocates has learned.

Craig Russell, 60 of Manhattan reached into the passenger side of the parks' vehicle and grabbed a 52-year-old mother,  a JTP working for Parks,  and punched her several times in the face while yelling out racial slurs according to parks sources.

The perpetrator continued to hold the arm of the worker, while the City Parks Worker driven vehicle headed toward the Shake Shack stand in the park. 

The man refused to let go of the worker's arm while the vehicle took off.

The perpetrator eventually fell while being dragged which released the worker.  

He was taken into custody by officers from the 13 Precinct . 

Russell was transported to Bellevue Hospital to treat a leg injuring - possibly a broken leg - where he is awaiting charges by the DA's office.

The park worker was transported to Beth Israel Hospital to treat injuries to the right cheek and wrist.

Russell who lives near the park tied his 13-year-old dog to a park railing when a Parks Department vehicle entered the park late Thursday evening at approximately  at 11:50pm according to the complaint filed with police. 

May Day Celebration In Union Square Park

May 1, 2012. Thousands of people gathered in Union Square Park on Tuesday in honor of May Day. Parks were used for a number of protests today including Bryant, Sara D. Roosevelt, Madison Square and Washington Square. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) click on images to enlarge.

A stage was erected at the Southern end of the Park.

Throngs of people representing a myriad of issues amassed in the park.

Signs of the Times

NYU's controversial massive expansion was represented.

The North End. Participants from the Professional Staff Congress /CUNY assemble near the pavilion before marching downtown.

Access Denied. The Pavilion. A preview of things to Come? The park's historic backdrop for rallies was cordoned off for the event. The Union Square Partnership and the City are attempting to install a restaurant at the location.

Marchers begin to head downtown from the North/Western part of the park.

A number of participants departed from the park's north end.

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Occupy Wall Street May Day Protests

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Arrests and Clashes Downtown as May Day Protests Spread

New York Times - May 1, 2012 - By Colin Moynihan, Ivan Pereira and Andy Newman

Dozens of Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators Arrested

DNAinfo - May 1, 2012