The maniac who went on a violent rampage starting at a Whole Foods across from Bryant Park on Thursday was busted at least eight previous times, most recently in late August, law-enforcement sources said Friday.
Michael Howell, 32 — whose alleged unprovoked attack with a glass bottle caused mayhem and bloodshed during the evening rush — appeared dazed as cops led him out of Midtown Precinct South in Manhattan on Friday and into the back of a squad car to head to court for his arraignment.
He was ordered held on $150,000 bail at the Friday night hearing.
The Manhattan man is charged with three counts of felony assault stemming from the rampage, which began outside the Whole Foods Market in Midtown across from the popular park and ended when he was nabbed after bashing a woman over the head on a train, police said.
Police sources said Howell’s previous arrests were for offenses including assault and petit larceny. His brushes with the law date back to 2014, when he was picked up for alleged DWI in Manhattan. He was then arrested for petit larceny in June of 2019 when he made off with $269 worth of merchandise from an H&M store at 1292 Broadway in Manhattan, authorities said.
Leading up to the deranged bottle assault, Howell was arrested for a string of concurrent thefts and another assault in August.
On Aug. 11, he was picked up for petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property at a Nordstrom Rack department store at 505 Fulton St. in Brooklyn.
Just four days later, on Aug. 15, he allegedly stole $39 worth of “household goods” from a TJ MAXX on West 57th Street in Manhattan. He wasn’t arrested for that crime until his most recent bust Aug. 24, when Howell was nabbed for allegedly stealing $189 worth of clothing and household items from the TJ Maxx at Columbus Circle and Broadway in Manhattan.
In the separate August assault case, Howell’s alleged victim received face wounds and scarring, according to prosecutors.
In 2016, he was convicted of weapons possession in New Jersey and he was also arrested for assault in the state, Manhattan prosecutors said at his arraignment.
Thursday’s spree of violence started around 6:40 p.m., when the suspect bashed a 23-year-old man with a bottle outside the Whole Foods, cops said.
He then entered the store, where he attacked a 49-year-old woman on the second floor, authorities said.
The assailant then fled outside and into the Rockefeller Street subway station at 47th Street and Sixth Avenue, where he struck a 55-year-old woman on the train.
All three victims were hospitalized in stable condition, police said. He was eventually apprehended.
Photos from the incident show a woman being wheeled into an ambulance, her head wrapped in bandages and her face streaked with blood.
Howell is due back in court Wednesday.
