A violent vagrant with a string of Massive 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 outdoors on hearth as he fled, in accordance with police and prosecutors.
When cops caught up with Hidalgo — who was on the streets regardless of open circumstances in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island — the profession legal was lastly ordered held on bail.
“He is locked up now — for now,” one regulation enforcement supply informed The Submit. “But we have to make sure he stays there or this ticking time bomb will continue committing these random acts of violence — more acts of escalating violence with machetes. And now, arson?”
In response to 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 an alternative, he allegedly pulled out a machete and threatened the shocked retailer workers, 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 outdoors the shop on hearth earlier than working into the Chauncey Road subway station, the place cops later caught up with him.
He was arraigned in Brooklyn Prison Court docket on Wednesday and ordered held on $25,000 money bail or a $50,000 bond on assault, arson, theft and a slew of different fees, 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 saved getting hit with is just not eligible for bail beneath state bail reform statutes.
In response to courtroom 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 fees 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 circumstances on Friday and launched with out bail.
On Feb. 2, he was arrested in Manhattan on assault and harassment fees for an alleged assault on Halloween, throughout which he’s accused of hitting a lady within the head with a bottle on Bradhurst Avenue in Harlem, a grievance in that case exhibits.
Manhattan prosecutors mentioned they requested that Hidalgo be launched beneath supervision and requested for an order of safety to maintain him away from the sufferer, each of which the decide accredited.
Hidalgo was already going through assault, weapons and harassment fees 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 handle,” in accordance with a legal grievance in that case.
Information present he was launched with out bail in that case as effectively, though a warrant was issued for his arrest after he blew off a Jan. 7 courtroom look.
“Multiple arrests one after another, violence on top of violence,” the regulation enforcement supply mentioned. “Sensible outcomes seem to evade our courts, and mental health care systems fail to provide any satisfactory result that doesn’t involve just letting a deranged person walk around unabated.”
He’s now being held at Rikers Island on the most recent Brooklyn arrest.
