Michael Palacios, 31, demonstrated a low tolerance for frustration when he was rejected by a woman and “went crazy” and became violent, destroying a part of a McDonald’s in Lower Manhattan with an axe.
The subject was confronted by other men early Saturday morning, but then they chose to step aside when Palacios pulled an ax out of his suitcase and began smashing tables and glass.
The men who tried to subdue him earlier backed away and raised their hands, including one who was protected by another woman, fearing that the enraged man would swing an axe at them.
The subject was soon arrested by the NYPD. A video of the assault was posted on social media, including Twitter.
The events occurred on Delancey Street, where Ruben, an Uber Eats delivery driver, witnessed the fight and the subject’s aggression after a woman rejected him.
“He had an argument with a girl, and then the girl turned him down,” the delivery driver told The New York Post. “She didn’t want to talk to him. He kept approaching her … that’s when the guys she was with intervened and started arguing.”
The witness adds that the man didn’t know the girl, that he asked her for her number and where she was from, but she turned him down.
Palacios was drunk, according to the report.
“He was drunk. He was talking to me; I could smell liquor on him,” the witness added.
The woman whom the guy was harassing had no choice but to corner herself in one of the restaurant’s armchairs, and her frustrated suitor told her “not to be afraid,” the report added.
@CrimeInNYC NYC always good for some chaotic mayhem. He didn’t hurt anybody, but could have been ugly ! pic.twitter.com/I6WvqROuGR
— Shakes Mcgoo (@McgooShakes) September 17, 2022
Although the man fled on a bicycle, police apprehended him a short time later on Ludlow Street, near the scene of the assault.
An employee told the Post that violence in the area is common and that he had seen the man before, but he had not been this aggressive.
Palacios is a Bronx resident and was charged with criminal mischief and three counts of menacing, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.