MANHATTAN — A Brooklyn man with a history of mental illness has been arrested for bashing a British marathon runner with a brick in a random Hell's Kitchen attack — and he has also been charged with assaulting three other people in a three-day spree last month, police said.
Leon Sims, 25, of Flatbush, was in police custody in Bellevue Hospital this week undergoing psychiatric evaluation when detectives drew a connection between the brick attack on runner Andrew Billington, 37, on Sept. 21, and another brick attack the following day in Brooklyn.
Sims was arrested Sept. 22 as he fled police in Flatbush about 3 p.m. after allegedly attacking another victim with a brick, police said, without providing details of the attack. Sims ran into traffic as police chased him and was struck by a car, cops said, and then he was arrested and taken to Bellevue. It was not clear whether Sims was injured in the crash.
This week, police connected that attack to the assault on Billington and charged Sims in that incident as well. The conditions of Billington and the other brick attack victim were not immediately known.
Sims was also charged with attacking his grandmother on Sept. 20 and randomly assaulting a commuter with a pipe on a Brooklyn subway platform on Sept. 22.
In the subway attack, the victim was waiting on the northbound C train platform in the Ralph Avenue subway station about 1:20 a.m., when Sims snuck up behind him and bashed him repeatedly on the head with a pipe, knocking him onto the subway bed, according to police.
Sims fled into the subway tunnel, police said.
The victim suffered a chipped tooth and cuts to the head, authorities said.
The details of Sims' alleged attack on his grandmother were not immediately available.
