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Machete-Wielding MTA Worker Charged in Upper West Side Street Brawl

By  Teddy Grant and Aidan Gardiner | July 20, 2017 6:35pm 

 Luis Roman was charged with attempted assault and criminal mischief at Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday.
Luis Roman was charged with attempted assault and criminal mischief at Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday.
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Pool: New York Daily News/Jefferson Siegel

MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — The machete-swinging MTA worker who brawled with a man wielding a garbage can in a wild fight caught on video smashed the man's cellphone with the blade after becoming enraged, thinking his victim wasn't paying attention while walking in a crosswalk, authorities said.

Luis Roman, 35, was charged with attempted assault and criminal mischief stemming from the dramatic Upper West Side fracas at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday.

He said he was simply defending himself from the other man, who can be seen the video throwing a metal garbage can at Roman and grabbing at his car door before the two start trading blows, prosecutors said.

 

Roman, who has worked for the MTA for nearly eight months guarding fellow employees who collect money from MetroCard machines, is allowed to carry a service weapon as part of the job but did not have the firearm when he was arrested, police and the MTA said. 

However, at some point during the fight, he flashed an ammunition magazine, the NYPD said.

The brawl broke when the unidentified pedestrian crossed the street at Broadway and West 94th Street while talking on his cellphone about 6:50 a.m. Wednesday, police said.

Roman got upset when he thought the man wasn't paying attention and began arguing with him, leading to the tense tangle captured on a video by a passerby.

At one point, he swung the machete so hard that the blade broke off from the handle and went flying down the sidewalk, according to the video and prosecutors. 

Roman tried to flee the scene in his car, but was eventually caught by police.

Roman, who appeared in the video to have blood stains on the front of his shirt, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday with a white bandage wrapped around his head.

The judge ordered him held on $2,500 cash bond.

He had been arrested in 2006, but police records for that incident are sealed, a spokesman said.