The New Jersey woman charged with slashing a stranger in the face outside a Manhattan pizza shop also allegedly punched a stranger on a city sidewalk in May — and threatened Monday to add a criminal court judge to her list of victims.
“I’m going to slash you in the face too if you put me in the cell for a long time,” Ola Albanni warned Judge Miriam Best during her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Albanni, 52, of Hoboken, NJ, then repeated the threat a second time, before ranting incoherently for a full minute during the hearing — leading Best to order her to be removed from court and taken for a psychiatric evaluation.
Prosecutors had called for the court to set bail of at least $100,000 after Albanni allegedly slashed a 65-year-woman with a kitchen knife on the sidewalk outside 2 Bros Pizza on Eighth Avenue and West 38th Street Friday night — in an unprovoked attack that left the victim with a large gash that required six stitches to patch up.
Albanni – who wore a furry black jacket and silver-sequined short shorts at the hearing – was still carrying the blade in her bag when she was arrested Sunday, and admitted to the random slashing, court papers alleged.
The harrowing assault was the second attack on strangers within the past five months that Albanni was charged with in Manhattan.
On May 2, she allegedly punched a 34-year-old woman in the face after approaching her on Third Avenue and East 37th Street just after 3 p.m., according to a criminal complaint.
Albanni then threatened another stranger with a boxcutter that was later recovered from her purse, police said.
Albanni was released without bail at her arraignment in the May case, court records show.
The misdemeanor assault and menacing raps she was charged with at the time were not eligible for bail, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.
But at the time of Friday’s attack, Albanni had an open arrest warrant after she failed to show up to court to make an appearance in her earlier case, court records state.
She faces up to 25 years in prison on a first-degree assault charge in Friday’s slashing.
The disturbing incident was the latest in a disturbing surge of stabbings and slashings across NYC’s sidewalks and subways in 2023.
NYPD data obtained by The Post shows that knife attacks in the city have spiked 26% since 2019.
From Jan. 1 through Aug. 13, the city has seen 3,365 nonfatal stabbings, compared to 2,666 four years ago, the numbers show.
That number is also up 5% from the same period last year, during which time victims suffered 3,208 nonfatal incidents of knife violence.
Over the same time period, 53 people have died in stabbing and slashing attacks in New York City — a shocking 29% increase from 41 in 2019.
