Several New York State Court officers were stabbed and slashed inside a lower Manhattan court Monday morning.
The attack happened around 9:45 a.m. in the lobby of the criminal court, according to Al Baker, communications director at the state Office of Court Administration.
Jonathan Wohl, 37, of Queens, ran into the lobby of Manhattan Criminal Court at 100 Centre Street around 9:30 a.m. and suddenly ambushed the officers with a knife, the sources said.
Wohl did not have a court appearance scheduled Monday morning, sources said, and the motive for the attack is unknown.
Wohl has been arrested 18 times in the past – mostly for drugs – but only three of those cases remain open, according to the sources.
He cut one of the officers twice on his face and sliced the other on the neck – before shoving a third into a barrier in the main lobby on the south side of the building, according to the sources and the Office of Court Administration.
“Several Court Officers immediately rushed to stop the assailant, subduing him near a bank of magnetometers, disarming him, and taking him into custody,” state courts spokesperson Al Baker said in a statement.
Baker described the incident, which was caught on surveillance video, as an apparent “targeted attack.”
Charges are pending against the alleged attacker.
A court officer said Wohl is known to come “to the building and cause trouble, agitate court officers, but nothing like this.”
“He’s always harassing the court officers,” the source told The New York Post. “He said he wanted to kill them.”
A representative of the New York State Supreme Court Officers Association said the group recently launched a campaign rallying for safer conditions.
“Within just a couple of days of launching a widespread advocacy campaign making the public aware of the severe safety deficiencies in our courts, OCA was in Brooklyn draining more personnel resources, while in Manhattan Criminal Court, two Court Officers were stabbed with one officer sustaining serious wounds to his face and neck,” union president Patrick Cullen said in a statement.
“What will it take for court leaders to take the appropriate action to secure these facilities?” Cullen added. “Our members aren’t safe and neither is the public. The time to act is now!”
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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What do they expect? He will probably get no bail release! If they want people to stop these actions, they need to have verdicts that will cause those that commit these crimes to think more than once before they commit them again. Deterrence works if severe enough judgments!
But did he have his ‘REAL ID’ on him?
What kind of judges would let an asshole like this out in the public to hurt citizens and cops. 18 arrests??? An obvious disrespect for the law and its enforcers??? Judges are a huge part of what is wrong with America.
Judges think they are God !
Why wasn’t he shot? weren’t t the officers ARNMED?
The victims must have been citizens.
Wow! “Only” three cases remain open against this clown, and he is allowed to roam the streets to commit further damage.
“Wohl has been arrested 18 times in the past – mostly for drugs –”
Any one see a pattern here?
He didn’t have to go through a metal detector before he entered the court building ?!