The felon who allegedly beat an elderly woman with her own baton 50 times on the New York City subway began a frenzied rant about “doomsday” when he was let out by police.
Norton Blake, 43, panicked as he was being transported through the Transit District 3 police station on Wednesday.
‘Judgment is coming upon the earth, World War III is imminent!’ he shouted, baring his teeth to the media hours after his arrest.
Shocking footage captured the attack five days ago, showing the man identified by police as Blake viciously beating the pensioner, Laurell Reynolds, with her cane as she begged him to stop.
Police sparked anger after it emerged that Blake was initially released by police on the scene after he and Reynolds reportedly gave conflicting accounts of the attack, before public outcry led investigators to arrest the felon days later.
Norton Blake, 43, erupted in a furious tirade as he was dragged through the Transit District 3 police station on Wednesday
The felon was arrested by police around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday by the NYPD’s arrest team
As his perpetrator walked out, Blake raved about ‘judgment day’ and warned ‘World War III is upon us’
Blake, a career criminal with at least nine prior arrests, was apprehended by the NYPD’s arrest squad around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.
After being apprehended at the transit area, he was dragged handcuffed in front of the media while wearing a navy blue shirt and navy blue pants.
At first it seemed like he was hiding his face from the cameras before he quickly went into an incoherent diatribe about the end of days.
While not much could be gleaned from his furious diatribe as he shouted through a subway terminal, he could be heard declaring himself a “gentleman.”
The alleged assailant’s perpetrator was then taken outside onto the streets of Manhattan as footage of the incident appeared to prove his innocence to him.
“It’s like Donald Trump says, it’s fake news, it’s going to be one sided,” he said. “You’re going to take it as AI, and make it look like my words… are being used against me.”
Moments before getting into a police car, Blake added, “Use the spirit of the Lord, ‘judgment is upon the earth, World War III is upon us!”
“Judgment comes upon the face of the earth,” he repeated.
Blake, a career criminal with at least nine other arrests, was named Tuesday by NYPD officials as the only suspect in the attack on Laurell Reynolds (seen on the floor), four days after Friday’s attack. The suspect was able to leave the scene after giving police a false name
The assailant – believed to be Blake – showed no mercy as he hit Reynolds more than 50 times with her cane
In the brutal assault that landed Blake behind bars, he continuously beat Reynolds with her own baton in a subway station in Harlem, New York City, around 3 a.m.
At first, the assailant tried to hit her with an umbrella, while she used her cane to keep him away.
But the beast managed to throw her to the ground, whereupon he brushed the stick away from her and began the savage beating.
Blake allegedly hit her on the head, abdomen, legs, arms, hands and back with the stick, only stopping the attack when the stick broke from the force of the shocks.
Many have reacted angrily to the incident, as not a single transit staff or police officer was stationed on the subway to stop the attack.
The attacker, dressed in dirty clothes and looking like a hobo, continued to assault the pensioner by yelling at her after the stick broke.
Before the video ended, Reynolds was seen curled up and motionless as the attacker delivered several more kicks to her body.
When footage of the attack went viral, sparking widespread outrage in New York City and online, a borough-wide search for the man responsible was underway.
Blake was named by police four days later, sparking questions about the delay after it emerged that he, the suspect, was released when he gave police a false name and countered Reynolds’s version of events.
About half an hour after the attack, the first police report came in, claiming that the suspect had fled the scene to “parts unknown.” The surveillance meant that the police on the scene missed Blake’s decades-long criminal record.
The way these officers treated the suspect at the scene is now being investigated, sources further told the Post. It is unclear whether police viewed bystander video of the attack before or after they released Blake.
Initially, officers led by NYPD chief Michael Kemper (pictured) said they received a call at 3:30 a.m. Friday reporting the attack, but that the suspect fled the scene “to parts unknown.”
The head of the NYC Transit Authority revealed that an MTA employee was the one who filmed the clip as he called the city’s Rail Control Center, who in turn called 911. Police responded to the scene before letting the suspect walk.
The victim Reynolds, who uses a walker, expressed her outrage before the suspect was caught, saying, “They should have arrested him!”
‘I don’t deserve that. Not at all, not at all… and I pray to God that this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Reynolds said. “They need to keep that man off the street.”
In a response to The Post, Reynolds’ daughter revealed she only learned of the attack after seeing it circulated online.
“Now I know,” 41-year-old Lashanne Reese recalled Tuesday as she realized what had happened to her mother — after wondering why she never showed up to a party she had on Saturday.
Of the poignant images—which raise eyebrows because of its convenient location from a subway toll booth—she said, “I’m hurt, it hurts.”
“That man could have killed my mother,” she added, sometimes crying in fits of apparent frustration at how things had been handled. “You all did nothing. I have a problem with that.’