Robbery suspect who caught a break from DA Bragg arrested again over attack on sanitation worker
A career criminal who had a felony robbery charge against him downgraded at the direction of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was busted again Wednesday in an unprovoked, sucker-punch attack on a city sanitation worker, The Post has learned.
Christian Hall, 30, allegedly sneaked up from behind as the victim, a 55-year-old man, was collecting trash outside 115 W. 23rd St. around 10 a.m., law enforcement sources said.
He then allegedly clobbered the unsuspecting civil servant in the head without warning, causing pain and swelling, sources said.
Hall was arrested at the scene by cops who took him into custody pending arraignment, sources said.
He was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, under a provision of state law that enhances the penalty for attacking certain public employees, as well as menacing and harassment, sources said.
“DA Bragg owns this attack,” a Manhattan cop said.
“You have a city worker, in uniform, doing his job, providing a service to the community and he is attacked by a man that should be in jail.”
Another Manhattan cop said: “This is what happens when you don’t hold criminals accountable.”
“You have to stop worrying about the criminals and start worrying about the innocent victims — or you won’t have anyone left in this city,” the cop added.
Last month, Hall was featured in a front-page Post report about his arrest following a shoplifting incident at the TJ Maxx store in Chelsea.
Hall allegedly threatened workers there with a pair of scissors, but the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association said a Manhattan prosecutor “intentionally omitted” that information from the criminal complaint.
The arresting officer refused to sign the complaint until it was amended “to include the shears and threatening statement,” the SBA said.
But the third-degree robbery charge that cops lodged against Hall was still reduced to petty larceny under terms of the controversial “Day One” memo that Bragg, a Democrat, issued after he took office on Jan. 1.
Widespread outrage led Bragg to reverse that policy last week in a memo that said commercial robberies committed “at knifepoint, or by other weapon that creates a risk of physical harm, will be charged as a felony.”
Bragg also said that holding up a store or other business with a firearm “will be charged as a felony, whether or not the gun is operable, loaded, or a realistic imitation,” adding: “The default in gun cases is a felony prosecution.”
Bragg’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The Legal Aid Society, which represents Hall in an unrelated Manhattan assault case, declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Tamar Lapin
