The hammer-wielding suspect linked to a series of Manhattan ambushes who was shot in midtown after attacking an NYPD officer has been arrested on felony assault and other charges.
David Baril, 30, was formally charged Thursday, a day after the dramatic confrontation between him and two police officers on a packed sidewalk near Penn Station was captured on chilling video.
Baril, who allegedly attacked four strangers -- three women and a man -- within a span of six hours in Manhattan Monday, was shot near West 37th Street and Eighth Avenue after he attacked two uniformed officers who recognized his photo from surveillance images and approached him.
Dramatic video of the confrontation shows the uniformed officers approach the suspect, wearing a hood and mask, from across the street. The suspect lunges at 27-year-old officer Lauren O'Rourke with a hammer, claw side facing out. He chases O'Rourke into the middle of the road and repeatedly hits her over the head with the hammer as she falls to the ground. Officer Geraldo Casaigne, 36, follows his colleague and the suspect into the street, weapon drawn, and fires.
Casaigne fired four shots at Baril, and the suspect was hit at least three times -- in the head, arm and torso, NYPD Deputy Chief Will Aubry said at a news briefing Wednesday. Police and multiple sources initially said Baril was dead, though police later said he was taken to Bellevue Hospital in extremely critical condition. He underwent surgery there and was in critical but stable condition Thursday.
The officers, both veterans with the NYPD, were not seriously injured; O'Rourke underwent a CAT scan as doctors were concerned about the impact of the hammer on her head, but there was no immediate update on her condition Thursday.
A white-claw hammer similar to the one described in the series of attacks Monday was recovered at the scene. Aubry said investigators looking into Baril's history spotted a photo that appeared to be of the same hammer on his Facebook page in May 2014. The hammer in that photo was bloody.
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Baril, whose last known address was in the Bronx, has eight prior arrests, including for assault, weapons possession and drug possession, police said. One of the attacks involved an assault on a police officer; in another, he jumped a counter at a fast-food restaurant and threatened a clerk. Baril, who has a history of mental illness, including paranoia and schizophrenia, voluntarily left a mental health facility in December, authorities said.
Police believe Baril has been living in parks and subways since he left the facility, and frequented the area near Union Square, where he allegedly attacked two women with a hammer in separate ambushes within minutes of each other Monday. NBC 4 New York first reported Tuesday that authorities believed he was behind two similar attacks that occurred in Manhattan earlier that day.
He faces seven counts of felony assault and one count of criminal possession of a weapon. Police say the investigation is ongoing. It's not clear if Baril has an attorney.
