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Serial Hammer Attacker Hit With 9-Count Indictment, Prosecutors Say

By Nicholas Rizzi | January 8, 2016 2:12pm
 David Baril, 30, was hit with a nine-count indictment after he attacked four people with a hammer around Manhattan in 2015.
David Baril, 30, was hit with a nine-count indictment after he attacked four people with a hammer around Manhattan in 2015.
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MANHATTAN — The mentally ill man who was shot by police after he went on a string of unprovoked hammer attacks in Manhattan last year was hit with a nine-count criminal indictment on Friday, prosecutors said.

David Baril, 30, who suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia, was arrested after he attacked four random people — including an NYPD officer — around Manhattan with a hammer in May.

“The seemingly random and unprovoked nature of the alleged assaults makes the defendant’s actions particularly alarming,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in a statement.

“Any object can be used as a weapon in the hands of someone with the intent to do harm, but thanks to the bravery of the officers involved, this individual was stopped before he could continue his violent spree through Manhattan and cause even more damage.”

Hammer Attack Video
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NYPD

Baril — a homeless man who had been arrested eight times — was charged with attempted murder, assault, attempted aggravated assault upon a police officer and attempted assault for the attacks, Vance said.

His attacks started on May 11, 2015, after he approached a group of four people near West 35th Street and 6th Avenue and tried to talk to them. When the group moved away from Baril, he used a hammer to hit a 20-year-old victim in the back of his head, prosecutors said.

Nearly six hours later, Baril hit a 28-year-old woman in the head with the hammer while she was sitting on a bench in Union Square Park, prosecutors said. Baril fled and used the same hammer to hit a 33-year-old woman in the back of the head on West 17th Street, near 6th Avenue, less than five minutes later, prosecutors said.

On May 13, Baril was approached by Police Officer Lauren O'Rourke, 27, and her partner Officer Geraldo Casaigne, 36, and took out a carpenter's hammer and struck O'Rourke in the arms, torso and back with the claw side, police said.

Casaigne fired four shots at Baril, striking him once in the arm and once in the torso, but sending him to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, police said.

He is still being held in the hospital, prosecutors said.