NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A man was arrested for slashing the throat of a church caretaker who asked him to stop urinating on a car in the East Village, police said Friday.
Roberto Ortiz, 28, was nabbed Thursday in the East Village and charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and false personation. His address is listed as a men's shelter on the Bowery.
Police believe Ortiz is the man behind the brutal slashing at East 14th Street and First Avenue on the evening of Jan. 21.
The victim—a 54-year-old man who works as a caretaker at the Immaculate Conception Church—was outside the church on East 14th Street at 5 p.m. when he saw a man urinating on a car.
When he asked the man to stop, the man whipped out a box cutter and slashed him across the neck, police said.
The victim was rushed in critical condition to Mount Sinai Beth Israel, where he received 16 stitches to his neck.
The victim later told the New York Post that he decided to confront the man when he saw him urinating on a church wall. "I can’t let that happen," the victim said.
The attacker went into a rage and started shouting obscenities at him before cutting his throat.
"I just felt something hot coming down my neck, then I realized I had blood all over my body," he said.
There have been several reports in recent weeks of public urinators attacking people who confronted them.
An NYPD officer was injured in Inwood on Jan. 22 by a man who drove a car at officers who'd caught him urinating in public.
And in the West Village on Feb. 14, a man was stabbed in the stomach by a man who he'd asked to stop urinating on a building in the middle of the afternoon, police said.