The thug who allegedly hit an elderly woman with her own cane fifty times on a New York subway began ranting derangedly about “judgment day” as he was being led by police officers.
Norton Blake, 43, went into a frenzy Wednesday as he was being dragged through the Transit District 3 police station.
“Judgment is upon the earth, World War III is upon us!” he yelled while baring his teeth at the media hours after his arrest.
Shocking footage showed the attack five days ago and showed the man, identified by police as Blake, brutally hitting pensioner Laurell Reynolds with her cane while she begged him to stop.
Police sparked fury when it was revealed that Blake had initially been released by local cops after he and Reynolds reportedly gave conflicting accounts of the attack before investigators arrested the thug days later due to public outcry.
Norton Blake, 43, ranted angrily as he was dragged through the Transit District 3 police station on Wednesday
The thug was arrested by police on an NYPD warrant at around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday
As his criminal walk moved outside, Blake gushed about “judgment day” and warned, “World War III is upon us.”
Blake, a career criminal with at least nine prior arrests, was apprehended by the NYPD’s warrant squad around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.
After being held at the transit station, he was dragged before the media in handcuffs and in a dark blue shirt and pants.
At first he appeared to hide his face from the cameras before quickly descending into an incoherent tirade about the end of days.
Though not much could be discerned from his angry tirade as he yelled through a subway terminal, he could be heard declaring he was a “Lord.”
The suspected assailant’s gang was then taken to the streets of Manhattan, where footage of the incident appears to have claimed his innocence.
“It’s like Donald Trump says, it’s fake news, it’s going to be one-sided,” he said. “You will act like an AI and make it appear as if my words… could be used against me.”
Just before getting into a police car, Blake added, “Use the Spirit of the Lord: ‘Judgment is coming upon the earth, World War III is at hand!’
“Judgment is coming upon the earth,” he repeated.
Blake, a career criminal with at least nine other arrests, was named by NYPD officials as the sole suspect in the attack on Laurell Reynolds (seen on the ground) on Tuesday — four days after Friday’s attack. The suspect was able to leave the scene after giving police a false name
The attacker – believed to be Blake – showed no mercy as he hit Reynolds more than 50 times with her stick
The brutal assault that put Blake behind bars resulted in him continuously hitting Reynolds with her own cane around 3 a.m. in a subway station in Harlem, New York City.
At first, the attacker tried to hit her with an umbrella while she tried to keep him at bay with her stick.
But the animal was able to throw her to the ground, whereupon he snatched the stick from her and began the brutal beating.
Blake reportedly hit her in the head, stomach, legs, arms, hands and back with the stick and only stopped the attack when the stick broke from the force of the impact.
Many reacted with anger to the incident, as not a single traffic worker or police officer was stationed on the subway to stop the attack.
The attacker, dressed in dirty clothes and appearing to be a tramp, continued to verbally abuse the pensioner by shouting at her after the stick broke.
Before the video stopped, Reynolds could be seen curled up and motionless as the attacker delivered several more kicks to her body.
When footage of the attack went viral, sparking widespread outrage in New York City and across the internet, a county-wide search was launched for those responsible.
Blake was named by police four days later, prompting questions about the delay after it emerged that the suspect was released when he gave police a false name and contradicted Reynolds’ version of events.
The first police report came in about half an hour after the attack and said the suspect had fled the scene to “unknown areas”. The oversight meant local police had overlooked Blake’s decades-reported criminal record.
The handling of the suspect at the scene by those officers is under investigation, sources further told the Post. It’s unclear if police saw video of the attack by bystanders before or after releasing Blake.
First, officers from New York City Police Commissioner Michael Kemper (pictured) said they received a call at 3:30 a.m. Friday reporting the attack but the suspect fled the scene “to parts unknown”.
The head of the NYC Transit Authority revealed that an MTA employee was the one who filmed the clip while calling the city’s Rail Control Center, who in turn called 911. Police responded to the crime scene before letting the suspect go.
Victim Reynolds, who uses a walker, voiced her outrage before the suspect was caught, saying: “They should have arrested him!”
“I didn’t deserve that.” “Not at all, not at all … and I pray to God it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Reynolds said. “You must keep this man off the streets.”
In comments to The Post, Reynolds’ daughter revealed she only found out about the assault after seeing it circulating on the internet.
“Now I know,” Lashanne Reese, 41, recalled Tuesday realizing what had happened to her mom – after wondering why she never showed up to a party on Saturday.
Speaking of the harrowing footage, which caused a stir as it was shot from inside a subway tollbooth, she said: “I’m hurt – it hurts.”
“That man could have killed my mother,” she added, sometimes crying in bouts of apparent frustration at the way things were being handled. ‘None of you did anything.’ I have a problem with that.’
