Machete-Swinging MTA Worker Arrested After Brawling With Man Holding Trash Can on Broadway: Police
A witness captured video of the early morning fight on Broadway
By Ray Villeda and Adam Warner ••
Police say an armed MTA security guard is the man seen swinging a machete in a fight with another man on an Upper West Side street. Ray Villeda reports.
What to Know
Police say an armed MTA security guard is the man seen on video swinging a machete and fighting with another man on the Upper West Side
Police identified him as Luis Roman; he faces a number of charges, including assault and criminal possession of a weapon
It's unclear what sparked the fight; no serious injuries were reported
An MTA security guard was arrested after he swung a machete and threatened a man with a gun as he fought with him on an Upper West Side street, authorities say.
It's unclear what sparked the early morning mêlée at the intersection of Broadway and West 94th Street shortly before 7 a.m., but the confrontation spilled onto the sidewalk, where the MTA security guard — identified by the NYPD as Luis Roman — battled with the other man, who was defending himself with a trash can, police said.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
The Bridge of No Return is seen from the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Some parts of this bridge, where North Korea and the American-led U.N. Commanded exchanged prisoners of war at the end of the Korean War, were visible while other parts were invisible due to the woods.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
A South Korea army soldier gestures at the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Some call it one of the scariest places on the planet; others view it more as a tourist spot. Several uniformed soldiers were at the village, which has a bleak cluster of blue huts where North Korean and U.S. military officers used to meet to oversee an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File
A North Korean army soldier walks at the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Panmunjom is located inside the heavily mined Demilitarized Zone that serves as a border between the Koreas, and the main road to the zone is lined with barb-wired fences and security watchtowers for kilometers miles.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
Army soldiers of North Korea, top, and South Korea stand guard at the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Panmunjom is located inside the heavily mined Demilitarized Zone that serves as a border between the Koreas, and the main road to the zone is lined with barb-wired fences and security watchtowers for miles.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A giant North Korean flag flutters from a 528-foot pole in the propaganda village of Kijong-dong as a South Korean army soldier stands guard at the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A North Korean army soldier walks at the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Panmunjom is located inside the heavily mined Demilitarized Zone that serves as a border between the Koreas, and the main road to the zone is lined with barb-wired fences and security watchtowers for miles.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
A giant North Korean flag flutters from a 528-foot pole in the propaganda village of Kijong-dong near the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
A foreign journalist takes a picture of a South Korean army soldier at the Military Armistice Committee meeting room at the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Some call it one of the scariest places on the planet; others view it more as a tourist spot.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
A North Korean monument with a propaganda message, left, is seen in Kijong-dong village near the border villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. The message is aimed at glorifying the Kim family that has ruled North Korea for nearly 70 years. The message reads: "Great comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will be with us forever."
A witness captured the fight with his cellphone as the two men clashed with fists and plastic bottles.
Police said the NYPD officers who located and arrested Roman recovered a gun and the machete. An NBC intern at the scene said the man was taken into custody near the 94th Street entrance of the downtown subway platform. The suspect had been sitting on a bench when nearly a half-dozen cops showed up and questioned him about where he had just been. The suspect told them he had just been meeting with a client. Officers put him in handcuffs.
Roman faces charges of assault, criminal mischief, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing. It's unclear if he has an attorney who can comment on the charges against him.
The witness who shot the video said he captured the last couple minutes of the fight and that the two men had been arguing for some time before things got physical.
An outrageous fight between a man armed with a machete and a man armed with a trash can was captured on camera in Manhattan Wednesday morning. The brawl broke out at about 6:50 a.m. at Broadway and West 94th Street, a witness said.
Roman, who police said is the man seen in a white shirt in the video, tried to drive away during the argument, when the other man, seen in a red hat, threw a trash can at his car, according to the witness. That’s when Roman allegedly pulled out the machete, according to the witness.
The video starts with the two men taunting each other. The man in white is gripping the machete and the man in red is dragging the trash can. A woman who was in the car with the man in white is seen standing between the two men while on her cellphone.
The man in white suddenly charges at the other man with the machete, but then backs off. The woman gets into the car and closes the passenger-side door, but the man in red reopens the door. That’s when the man in white dashes around the back of the car and swings the machete at him. The machete goes airborne and lands in the street.
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After that, the video shows the man in red lifting the trash can over his head and tossing it at the other man, who pushes it aside and runs for the driver’s seat. The man in red stops him from closing the door and the two men begin punching each other in the middle of Broadway. They eventually start throwing plastic bottles and cups at one another.
From there, the fight begins to fizzle out. When the video ends, the man in red is standing on the sidewalk on his cellphone and the man in white is getting into his car and beginning to drive away.
In the video, the man in white appears to have blood on his shirt as he leaves the scene. Police said the man in red hurt his hand, but that no serious injuries were reported.
The MTA had no comment on the incident.
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