CHELSEA — A Bronx man tied to at least four attacks against women — including a random slashing in Chelsea — has been found unfit to stand trial, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.
Fordham resident Kari Bazemore, 41, was taken into custody by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Thursday after a court-appointed psychologist deemed him mentally unfit for trial, the DA said.
Bazemore was arrested Jan. 7, a day after he allegedly slashed 24-year-old Amanda Lynn Morris on the face from her nose to her chin as she walked under scaffolding outside 163 W. 23rd St. around 6:15 a.m., police said.
Someone recognized Bazemore from surveillance video released by the NYPD and alerted police, officials said.
Sources said Bazemore had been arrested about 32 times prior to the Chelsea slashing.
He’d been released from custody a few days prior to that attack after being charged for a Dec. 30, 2015, incident in which he punched a 32-year-old woman in the Village, police said.
A day after his arrest for the Chelsea slashing, Bazemore was charged with striking a 43-year-old woman in the face with a bag containing an “unknown blunt object” as she walked north on Fifth Avenue between 55th and 56th streets on Nov. 4.
Police also suspected Bazemore carried out an attack against a young woman near the Clocktower building in Port Morris on New Year's Day.
After the Greenwich Village attack, prosecutors requested Bazemore be held on $1,000 bail, but a judge released him.
Attorney Paul Feinman, who represents Bazemore, told DNAinfo that his client was “just not well enough to come forward.”
He will remain in the custody of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene “until the point where he’s ready to go forward with the case,” Feinman said.
“It could be a week, it could be a year — it’s kind of up to the doctors at this point,” he added.
