MIDTOWN EAST — A man whipped out a samurai sword at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store on Friday afternoon, terrifying shoppers, police and witnesses said.
The man, who was wearing a bucket hat and gray jacket, walked into the store at 3:55 p.m. on Friday and unsheathed the sword but did not threaten anyone, police said.
Video posted online by a witness shows the man in the store's spiral staircase, swinging the sword around before coming down to the ground floor.
Man armed with a sword arrested at #applestore #nyc #breakingnews pic.twitter.com/qljjB1d5L5
— Boris (@borisrio) November 20, 2015Crazy dude with samarai sword in Apple Store
An Apple Store employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said that at one point the deranged man yelled "I just want an iPhone!" as he swung the sword on a staircase landing.
"It was pretty scary," the employee said.
"The merchandise floor was packed, and all of a sudden I see that the staircase was empty. I thought, that's bizarre," said Nancy Birnbaum, a lawyer who lives nearby and was at the Apple Store to type up an email.
"I see a man who proceeds to pull out this sword, this mother-effing sword! The blade must have been 2 feet, curved, shining. Everybody just quickly moved back to the perimeter of the store. I've never been more terrified in my life," Birnbaum said.
According to a witness who stood outside the store, the sword-wielding man came outside where he threatened to cut his own neck with the weapon.
"He put the sword to the back of his neck and just held it there," said the 30-year-old witness, who declined to give his name. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."
The man was tackled and subdued outside of the store by Apple Store security officers and police, according to witnesses and the NYPD.
No one was injured.
The man was taken by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition where he is being evaluated, police said.
The Apple store did not answer a call for comment.
@FoxNews man pulls sword at Apple Store pic.twitter.com/sA7lXDUUuN
— Keith Davis (@rkeithdavis) November 20, 2015
