A violent vagrant with a string of Large Apple assault busts on his rap sheet is lastly behind bars after cops mentioned he slashed a clerk at a Brooklyn low cost retailer with a machete and tried to set him on hearth.
All as a result of he couldn’t afford a stick of gum.
Joaquin Hidalgo, 35, couldn’t give you the money for the gum on the Brooklyn Two 99-cent retailer in Bushwick on Monday, so he pulled out a machete, threatened employees, slashed one and doused him in lighter fluid earlier than setting a flag exterior on hearth as he fled, in response to police and prosecutors.
When cops caught up with Hidalgo — who was on the streets regardless of open instances in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island — the profession prison was lastly ordered held on bail.
“He’s locked up now — for now,” one regulation enforcement supply advised The Put up. “However we have now to ensure he stays there or this ticking time bomb will proceed committing these random acts of violence — extra acts of escalating violence with machetes. And now, arson?”
In line with police, Hidalgo walked into the Broadway low cost retailer shortly earlier than 1 p.m. on Monday and grabbed some gum — however didn’t have the cash to pay for it.
As a substitute, he allegedly pulled out a machete and threatened the shocked retailer staff, slashing one within the left hand — then pulling out a container of lighter fluid and pouring that on the injured man.
Police mentioned Hidalgo then fled, however lit a flag exterior the shop on hearth earlier than working into the Chauncey Avenue subway station, the place cops later caught up with him.
He was arraigned in Brooklyn Legal Courtroom on Wednesday and ordered held on $25,000 money bail or a $50,000 bond on assault, arson, theft and a slew of different prices, prosecutors mentioned.
Hidalgo had remained free with out bail till now regardless of a string of arrests — as a result of the lesser assault cost he stored getting hit with will not be eligible for bail below state bail reform statutes.
In line with court docket information, his final arrest got here on Thursday in Brooklyn, when he was charged with assault, tried assault and harassment for allegedly slugging one other man contained in the holding cells on the NYPD’s 73rd Precinct station home.
He was on the precinct after getting busted the day earlier than on prices of possession of a knife and disorderly conduct at an Ocean Hill subway station when a straphanger noticed him smoking within the transit system and carrying a blade greater than 4 inches lengthy, information present.
He was arraigned on each instances on Friday and launched with out bail.
On Feb. 2, he was arrested in Manhattan on assault and harassment prices for an alleged assault on Halloween, throughout which he’s accused of hitting a girl within the head with a bottle on Bradhurst Avenue in Harlem, a grievance in that case reveals.
Manhattan prosecutors mentioned they requested that Hidalgo be launched below supervision and requested for an order of safety to maintain him away from the sufferer, each of which the choose accepted.
Hidalgo was already going through assault, weapons and harassment prices in Staten Island for getting right into a dispute on Tompkins Avenue on Nov. 11 and hitting the sufferer within the chest with “a silver hatchet with a brown deal with,” in response to a prison grievance in that case.
Data present he was launched with out bail in that case as nicely, though a warrant was issued for his arrest after he blew off a Jan. 7 court docket look.
“A number of arrests one after one other, violence on prime of violence,” the regulation enforcement supply mentioned. “Smart outcomes appear to evade our courts, and psychological well being care methods fail to offer any passable end result that doesn’t contain simply letting a deranged particular person stroll round unabated.”
He’s now being held at Rikers Island on the newest Brooklyn arrest.
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