UNION SQUARE — An East Village man stole a steak knife from a burger restaurant and walked down 14th Street threatening people with the weapon, according to police and a witness.
Angel Ortiz, 49, walked into 5 Napkin Burger at the corner of 14th Street and Third Avenue just before 11 p.m. on June 28 and swiped a steak knife and a piece of fruit, dashing out of the place before anyone could stop him, according to Kylie Lowe, who was working as a hostess at the time.
Ortiz disappeared from view walking in the direction of Union Square but Lowe said shortly after he left she saw him come dashing back down 14th Street, waving the knife and running at passersby.
“When he came back he wasn’t holding the fruit anymore but he had the knife and he was just charging at anyone who got near him,” Lowe said. “People inside were banging on windows to get people’s attention because they were so engulfed in their phones they didn’t even notice him at first.”
One victim, a 25-year-old man, told police that he feared for his life when Ortiz charged at him, a police spokesman said.
Police spotted Ortiz walking east on 14th Street brandishing the knife and ordered him to drop it, but he continued walking toward other pedestrians nearby, according to a police report.
Officers managed to subdue Ortiz after he ignored repeated orders to drop the knife, police said.
“It was crazy for a Tuesday night,” Lowe said. “But at my last job a guy came in with a gun, so this was less scary.”
Prosecutors charged Ortiz with robbery, resisting arrest, menacing, reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a weapon, and disorderly conduct, a spokeswoman said. A judge ordered him held on $15,000 bail, and he is due back in court on Aug. 23, records show.
A lawyer for Ortiz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
