A pregnant woman was smashed in the head with a metal rod by a “disheveled lunatic” in Chelsea on Tuesday, according to witnesses and police.
The victim, a 35-year-old brunette in a fashionable leather jacket and slacks, fell to the ground shrieking in anguish, according to a witness, Norman Ross.
Ross said the attacker looked dirty and was wearing a leather jerkin over a robe and high-top sneakers. It was obvious, he added, that the victim didn’t know the attacker.
“I’ll be honest, I was scared,” said Ross, even though he is an accomplished weightlifter and the pal he was with, Matthew Malin, is a 6-foot-6 martial arts fighter.
“He was angry and p—ed off and looking to smash people.”
Ross, 61, and Malin, 35, were walking to a diner after seeing the movie “Warfare” when they saw actual violence break out on 18th Street near 6th Avenue, soon being among those menaced as they tried to intervene.
“The guy started threatening everybody, screaming ‘I’ll f–k you up! I’ll knock you out,’” Ross said.
While they were preoccupied with the “disheveled lunatic,” the attacked pregnant woman climbed to her feet and fled to her apartment nearby.
The attacker kept ambling east on 18th Street, mumbling a mix of gibberish and more threats to the crowd, Ross said.
After calling police, Malin and Ross climbed into a police cruiser to help search for the attacker, identifying him a few blocks away.
“There he was,” Ross said sarcastically, “holding his four-foot metal bar calmly walking down the street.”
Officers arrested the suspect, Raquan El, 37, without incident, law enforcement sources said. He is charged with assault in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon, for the pipe that police said was stuffed with wood.
The suspect has eight prior arrests, including a July 2024 bust for allegedly grabbing a woman’s buttocks as she walked at the corner of Bleecker and Perry streets in the West Village, according to sources and a criminal complaint.
“Hey baby, can I walk with you?” El allegedly told the victim, according to the complaint.
He was charged with forcible touching and sexual abuse and ordered held on $2,000 cash bail or $4,000 bond — over prosecutors’ request for $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond, the DA’s office said.
He pleaded guilty to one count of forcible touching and was sentenced to 30 days in jail just last week, on April 29, according to prosecutors.
Online city Department of Correction records show he was cut loose the same day.
The exact reason for his release is unclear, but law enforcement sources said the time a person has already spent on Rikers Island can factor into the sentence time.
El was also busted in December for allegedly slinking under a turnstile to evade the fare at the Utica Avenue station, according to a criminal complaint.
He allegedly flailed his arms, pulled an officer’s arms away and grabbed onto cops to avoid being arrested, the court doc said.
The charges he faced were not bail-eligible, and he was granted supervised release, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
He has also been arrested for criminal possession of a weapon, criminal trespassing and burglary, according to the sources.
The NYPD also responded to one “emotionally disturbed person” incident involving El back in June of 2023, the sources said.
Ross said the pregnant victim went back to the 13th Precinct to identify him.
She was taken to Bellevue Hospital with pain and swelling and was in stable condition, police said.
Despite deadlifting 350 pounds last week (617.75 pounds at his peak) and with a friend who is trained to fight, Ross said the encounter was unnerving.
“Oh hell yeah, we were scared,” Ross said. “My friend is a 6-foot-6 MMA fighter – he’s a big scary dude – but we’re not used to a crazy guy screaming and yelling with a metal pipe in our face.”
Ross said he is as New York as you can get. He was born in Lenox Hill Hospital but spent the rest of his life growing up in Canarsie. He said senseless incidents like this wouldn’t have happened when he was a kid.
“That’s what this city is becoming,” Ross said. “But bashing a poor pregnant woman in the head. … No way.”
Cops thanked Ross and Malin and gave them a ride to Westway Diner, their original destination before all hell broke loose. He had half a roast chicken, vegetable soup, salad and breadsticks.
“I ate more calories than I ordinarily eat because I was so freaked out by the whole experience,” he said.
