Cops bust suspect in random hammer attack while processing him for other crime
The maniac who allegedly bashed a straphanger over the head with a hammer was busted in the attack while already in custody for snatching a teen’s chain in a Harlem subway station, according to authorities and police sources.
Jamar Newton, 41, who is homeless, ripped the chain from the neck of an 18-year-old man at the 125th Street station around 6 p.m. Sunday, police sources said.
The teen, who is from the Bronx, chased Newton through the station until cops spotted what was happening and grabbed the alleged thief, according to the sources.
Cops recovered the chain — and while processing Newton for the arrest, they realized he was linked to the hammer attack a day earlier, authorities said.
Newton allegedly attacked the 44-year-old stranger at the Union Square station around 9 p.m. Saturday, accusing him of looking at him the wrong way.
“Don’t look at me!” Newton barked at the victim, who was waiting on the N/R line platform, according to police.
“If you come any closer, I’m going to hit you!” he allegedly snarled.
As the victim walked away, the attacker went to a nearby bench and pulled a hammer out of a bag, police said.
He struck the victim in the back of the head with the hammer — causing him to fall onto the train tracks.
The victim was ultimately pulled to safety by good Samaritans — but was taken to Bellevue, where he needed seven stitches to close his head wound, police said.
Newton was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon, cops said.
“ARRESTED last night after committing an unrelated robbery, & connected to another crime in the Bronx… all w/ 2 existing cases in criminal court from prior arrests,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted. “This is what precision policing is all about — the small number of people driving a large amount of the crime.”
Newton was also charged in connection to clothing thefts from two Bushwick thrift stores, one in June and one in April, according to police sources.
In the later incident, he entered the store holding a screwdriver, the sources said.
Newton gave his address to police as the Peter Jay Sharp Center for Opportunity, a shelter on Porter Avenue near Johnson Avenue in Bushwick.
