![\"West](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/west-26-street-7th-avenue-107515334.jpg\")
The maniac punched a 38-year-old man and as many as four other people in an unhinged spree at West 26th Street and 7th Avenue Wednesday morning, cops said. Google Maps<\/p>\nA shoeless maniac randomly attacked several strangers and even cops in an unhinged Wednesday morning spree in Chelsea \u2013 leaving one victim lamenting to The Post \u201cthis shouldn\u2019t be happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unhinged man allegedly punched photographer and artist Jose Castillo, 38, at West 26th Street and Seventh Avenue around 9:20 a.m., police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Castillo, a New Yorker of 12 years who has a studio in SoHo, was walking to pick up supplies in Chelsea when he strolled past a man who had been asking people for money on the street.<\/p>\n
Out of nowhere, that man turned violent, Castillo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt [like I was] punched in the face, and it knocked me to the ground,\u201d he said. \u201cA couple people that were around came by to see if I was OK and helped me up. I wasn\u2019t knocked out, but I was knocked down to the floor by the punch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The maniac punched a 38-year-old man and as many as four other people in an unhinged spree at West 26th Street and 7th Avenue Wednesday morning, cops said. Google Maps<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as I was getting up, to just you know, dust it off and keep on walking because it\u2019s New York, one of the people that was helping me said like, \u2018You\u2019re bleeding in your face,\u2019 and she said, \u2018You should call the cops,\u2019\u201d Castillo added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As he dialed 911, he looked back to see if the madman was still in sight \u2013 and caught him punching a teen girl, a tourist who was visiting the city with her mom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw it from maybe like half a block away as I was walking over and he hit her in the face too,\u201d Castillo said. \u201cBut by the time I reached them, the young girl was inconsolable. She was crying because she had just been attacked in the middle of the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went over and approached them, and I was like, \u2018Hey, did he attack you too?\u2019, and they were like, \u2018Yeah, he just punched her too,\u2019 and by then I was already on the line with 911 and I was telling them what was happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"NYPD](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nypd-scene-slashing-115-106148676.jpg\")
The crazed attacker was hospitalized for an evaluation and taken into custody with charges pending, police said. William Miller<\/p>\n
Both mom and daughter, who were \u201cquite shaken up,\u201d were no longer at the scene by the time cops arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI assume this is gonna be their New York story, you know,\u201d Castillo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Castillo was on the phone with the dispatcher, he said he witnessed the crazed man attack another youngster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got up to these young kids that looked like they were in middle school and when they didn\u2019t pay any attention to him, he smacked one of them in the back of the head,\u201d he said. \u201cI was telling all of this to the dispatcher and letting them know that they should get there fast, because this guy was, you know, attacking people randomly.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the officers approached, the street menace became \u201ccombative\u201d and turned on them too \u2014 punching a 30-year-old male officer in the face, and spitting on a 30-year-old female cop, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another officer, 53, also hurt his shoulder while attempting to take the assailant into custody, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs they get close to him, this guy just starts swinging, and hits one of the officers on the right side of his face, and they tried to contain him,\u201d Castillo said. \u201cYou know, that guy wasn\u2019t that tall, he was about 5-foot-7, but he was really strong for someone that was that skinny.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just havoc,\u201d the victim recalled. \u201cThe cops tried to\u2026restrain him and they were having issues with that. Two other police officers came by and helped \u2026 .I know that he was spitting at officers at the station and in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castillo was treated at the scene for minor injuries, but said he thinks he needs to get checked out further.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I\u2019m going to get an X-ray of my face because\u2026. I have pain, like I think that he moved one of my teeth in the back of my mouth,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two male officers were hospitalized in stable condition, according to cops.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the attacker \u2014 who is considered an emotionally disturbed person \u2014 was taken to Bellevue Hospital for an evaluation, police said.<\/p>\n
He was taken into police custody with charges pending. His name was not immediately known and police were considering him a \u201cJohn Doe.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wore only socks but no shoes during the string of attacks, and appeared to be in his mid-40s, Castillo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly he was just silent and threatening, getting in people\u2019s faces,\u201d he recalled. \u201cYou know, this guy was serious. I\u2019ve been living here for 12 years, and I\u2019ve seen some people that were acting a little deranged, but this guy definitely was\u2026.I think that he needed some help.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Castillo said that attacks like these \u201cshouldn\u2019t be happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are alternatives that could be put in place to help these people out,\u201d he said. \u201cThe police response was quick, they were very helpful. I think that we should be thankful that we live in a city that has such a strong police force that is there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shoeless maniac randomly attacked several strangers and even cops in an unhinged Wednesday morning spree in Chelsea…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12937,461,4219,6335,5249,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-33644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-assaults","10":"tag-chelsea","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-exclusive","13":"tag-manhattan","14":"tag-metro","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-news","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114785869251377391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}