Bat-wielding maniac bashes 10, carjacks 2 in wild NYC crime spree

An unhinged New Jersey man allegedly injured 10 people and carjacked two vehicles during a crazy Saturday night rampage through the streets of New York City.

Brandishing what victims variously described as a bat, tree branch, or wooden club, 43-year-old suspect Bryan Thompson of Atlantic City ran wild for nearly an hour through Manhattan in what one police source called “a one-man crime spree.”

Thompson’s terrifying tour allegedly began around 6:35 p.m. in the subway station at Varick and Canal, according to the New York Post.

There he allegedly beat a man entering the station repeatedly with a bat, knocking the victim unconscious and inflicting injuries to his shoulder, hand and forehead, the NYPD said.

Thompson then bashed a woman over the head, before striking an MTA worker with the weapon at least three times on his way out of the station.

Outside the violence continued, as the suspect allegedly cracked the driver of a parked idling SUV on 7^th Avenue with the bat and stole the vehicle. 

Thompson then smashed the SUV into two parked unoccupied vehicles before crashing it around 6^th Avenue and Laight Street, police said.

After dumping the car, he next tried to carjack a 2006 Ford Taurus by breaking its rear window and attempting to drag the female driver from the vehicle. 

Abandoning that carjacking attempt, Thompson then turned his attention to a nearby 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee, allegedly breaking a side window in an effort to wrest the vehicle from its 32-year-old female driver.

Although the effort was unsuccessful, the Jeep driver was left with broken glass in her eye, according to police.

Victims reported that the attacker used either bats or tree branches to try to smash his way into their vehicles.

Thompson ran off again and set upon a couple walking near the Hilton Garden Inn with “a wooden weapon,” breaking the arm of a 42-year-old Texas man and inflicting severe bruising and a swollen leg on a 41-year-old woman.

The suspect then successfully carjacked his second set of wheels, a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee, after threatening its 33-year-old male driver who had just parked at 66 West Broadway, according to police.

Thompson sped off in the stolen car and was spotted again about 7:12 p.m. driving north on the West Side Highway around West 24th Street.

He soon crashed into an NYPD patrol car and came to a stop after hitting a median, cops said. 

When the suspect refused to get out of the car, officers broke one of the vehicle’s windows and tased him.

Thompson was taken to Bellevue Hospital and charged with assault.

“He’s been charged with all these incidents, but obviously they have to send him in for a psych evaluation first,” a source told The New York Post.