An unhinged vagrant accused of slashing the neck of a church caretaker who confronted him for urinating on a car in the East Village has been arrested and charged with attempted murder, cops said Friday.
Roberto Ortiz, 28, who appears to be homeless, allegedly attacked 54-year-old John Mach with a boxcutter near Immaculate Conception Church on East 14th Street, at First Avenue, on Jan. 21 — leaving him with a lengthy gash across his neck that required 16 stitches.
Ortiz, a resident of a men’s shelter in the Bowery, was busted Thursday night and also faces charges of assault, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance and false personation, according to police.
He has one prior arrest for grand larceny, cops said, though more details about that case weren’t immediately known.
Mach, a widower originally from Puerto Rico, told The Post in the aftermath of the vicious assault that he was defending the sanctity of his workplace when he approached the rogue urinator.
“He was trying to urinate between two cars, then on the wall of the church, but I can’t let that happen,” Mach said, adding that he had even offered the man the keys to the church bathroom.
Instead of taking up the offer, the creep told Mach “f—k you,” he recalled.
Mach said the “unstable” man then flew into a rage, unleashing a torrent of foul language before taking a swing at him.
“There’s children in there and older people. He started cursing at me and then he swung at me and I defended myself.”
After the confrontation turned physical, Mach said the deranged man threatened more violence.
“My shift was over at 3 p.m. I stayed because he threatened two of my colleagues,” the caretaker said. “He said he had a blade and was going to slice them up.”
“He threatened me so I punched him, I defended myself, I knocked him out. I had to defend myself and the church.”
The violent vagrant returned a short time later with a boxcutter, taking Mach by surprise in a cowardly attack from behind before running away laughing, according to the victim.
“He left, changed his clothes, and out of nowhere he came and sliced me while my back was turned helping a lady in a wheelchair down the ramp,” Mach said.
“I left the lady where she was, ripped my longjohn, tied it around my neck and chased him,” the wounded parish caretaker said.
The creep said nothing during the callous attack, the victim said.
“I just felt something hot coming down my neck then I realized I had blood all over my body,” he recalled.
Mach said he ran after his attacker for more than half a block, but the suspect got away.
Weeks later another vagrant – who has not yet been caught – toppled a Jesus statue during a rampage causing $4,000 in damages at the same Catholic church, after he was caught sleeping there, cops and a parish worker said.
“He got violent and was tearing down bookcases and stuff, and he knocked a statue of Jesus over,” a church employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said of that incident this week.
“So it was just really kind of scary, because it was just kind of uncontrollable, like this outburst of violence.”
Five of the seven major crime categories are down in the NYPD’s Ninth Precinct, which covers the area of the church, the latest police statistics reveal.
But felony assaults are very slightly up there, with 29 such crimes reported since January – compared to 25 during the same period last year.
Also, one more robbery – 19 – was reported in the precinct’s confines so far this year compared to 2023, the records show.
