Maniac Slashes Tires of 19 NYPD Vehicles Near Precinct Building

There’s a portly masked maniac on the loose who appears not to like New York’s Finest so much.

That’s but one conclusion to draw from the disturbing events that occurred near the historic—and architecturally splendid—NYPD Traffic Control Division building at 134 W. 30th St. between Sixth and Seventh avenues sometime around 11:40 p.m. on Tuesday March 4.

With a savagery not easily sated, an unknown individual attacked 19 parked NYPD vehicles with a sharp object, puncturing their tires.

It is unclear what weapon the attacker used—an ice pick, a knife, or some combination of implements, though it’s likely that the police themselves know and are withholding these details while the investigation continues.

Interestingly, the cops have been more forthcoming about the perpetrator’s physical size and gender.

This is helpful, because in the still photo NYPD released of an individual exiting through a subway turnstile, neither of these things is clear.

Rather, one sees a large and curvy white person—their likely race revealed by their ungloved hands—in a grayish hoodie, gray sneakers, black pants, a bright blue winter hat, and a white surgical or COVID mask that covers the alleged tire slasher’s face nearly in full. A narrow strip of exposed skin and eyes between the suspect’s mask and hat confirms they are a white person.

The police went further however, describing the person as a man with a “heavy build,” approximately 5’11” tall, and weighing around 260 pounds.

While additional video footage of the suspect walking uptown under scaffolding on what appears to be Seventh Avenue helpfully confirms that the suspect was also wearing a blue-ish green backpack, numerous commenters on the Pix 11 News YouTube channel remain unsure if the slasher is a man or a woman.

As this crime reporter posed the very same question to police, it’s fair to say that the visual evidence alone is ambiguous.

Whatever the answer may turn out to be, the suspect so successfully obscured most of his—or her, or their—identity that the assault on the police vehicles was almost certainly premeditated.

Indeed, watching the video, one notices the alleged tire slasher’s hands are not visible; rather they are covered by the long sleeves of his hoodie.

Whether this was an intentional attempt to hide his skin color—one betrayed by his bare hand at the subway turnstile—or just a coincidence is unclear but it does reveal that, though in some ways the tire attacks appear to have been well planned, this was not the proverbial “perfect crime.”

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.