UNION SQUARE — A New Jersey teen alarmed passersby in Union Square when he started wildly swinging a 2-foot sword, police said.
The 19-year-old was waving the blade at roughly 2 p.m. on Aug. 26 inside Union Square Park when several people nearby told police officers they were nervous with his swordplay, according to a criminal complaint.
Upon his arrest, authorities discovered the man was wanted on a warrant in New Jersey for allegedly stealing a Honda Pilot in Guttenberg, N.J., in February, according to Hudson County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Raymond Worrall.
Prosecutors charged the teen with reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said. A judge gave him $1 bail for the sword-related charges, but ordered him held without bail so he could be forced to answer the New Jersey warrant, a spokeswoman for the DA said.
He's due back in court on Sept. 9, records show.
The man’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
In July a man was hit with a Taser and arrested by police after threatening officers with a sword in a Bushwick park, and last November a man wielded a sword in the glass staircase at the Central Park Apple store while screaming, "I just want an iPhone."
