A maniac barged into a Lower Manhattan courthouse and slashed two officers in the neck and face in a shocking, apparently “targeted” attack Monday morning, law enforcement officials and sources said.
Jonathan Wohl, 37, of Queens, ran into the lobby of Manhattan Criminal Court at 100 Centre Street around 9:30 a.m. and suddenly ambushed the officers with a knife, the sources said.
He cut one of the officers twice on his face and sliced the other on the neck – before shoving a third into a barrier in the main lobby on the south side of the building, according to the sources and the Office of Court Administration.
“The assaults, captured on surveillance video, appeared preliminarily to be a targeted attack of the uniformed officers working security details at the courthouse,” an OCA spokesman said in a statement.
A group of officers could be seen taking him down to the ground and then carrying him out of the courthouse with his feet up in the air.
“Several Court Officers immediately rushed to stop the assailant, subduing him near a bank of magnetometers, disarming him, and taking him into custody,” the spokesman said.
Charges are pending against the alleged attacker.
Meanwhile, the injured officers were hospitalized in stable condition, according to the sources.
The brute did not have a court appearance scheduled Monday morning, sources said, and the motive for the attack is unknown.
Wohl has been arrested 18 times in the past – mostly for drugs – but only three of those cases remain open, according to the sources.
The crazed attacker has been a regular problem at the courthouse, a police source said.
“He’s always harassing the court officers,” the source told The Post. “He said he wanted to kill them.”
A court officer said Wohl is known to come “to the building and cause trouble, agitate court officers, but nothing like this.”
The appalling attack comes as New York State Supreme Court Officers Association revealed that staffing at the city’s courthouses has plummeted to “bleak” levels – potentially endangering judges, jurors and the public.
“Within just a couple of days of launching a widespread advocacy campaign making the public aware of the severe safety deficiencies in our courts, OCA was in Brooklyn draining more personnel resources, while in Manhattan Criminal Court, two Court Officers were stabbed with one officer sustaining serious wounds to his face and neck,” union president Patrick Cullen said in a statement.
“What will it take for court leaders to take the appropriate action to secure these facilities?” Cullen added. “Our members aren’t safe and neither is the public. The time to act is now!”
