A man with a machete was arrested Tuesday after attempting to hack a 31-year-old woman to death in a park in New York City.
The incident occurred during lunch hour at Manhattan’s bustling Bryant Park, in what investigators believe was a completely “unprovoked” attack by 43-year-old Frederick Young.
The terrified target of his homicidal rage was treated at a hospital for a gash on her arm that responding officers said was “not life threatening.”
That victim’s name has not been released, but it isn’t the first time her crazed assailant has ended up in police custody, and it also appears by his lengthy rap sheet that a big blade has been his choice of weapon on at least one other occasion.
Young’s been charged 23 separate times for various criminal acts, including a 2010 arrest for “menacing” someone with a machete.
But popular Bryant Park itself is no stranger to violent crime either, having been the scene of a public shooting in 2013 that left two recreational skaters injured and others at the rink stampeding to get away from a 16-year-old gunman.
Compared with that kind of mayhem, yesterday’s thwarted assault by a man with a machete might seem relatively minor -- city officials say neither event was related to terrorism.
