Hammer Attacker Gets 22 Years In State Prison, Prosecutors Say

NEW YORK CITY — A man who attacked three random people and a police officer with a hammer in 2015 is facing more than two decades in prison, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

David Baril, 32, was sentenced Wednesday to serve 22 years in state prison, prosecutors said. Baril pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree assault and one count of attempted aggravated assault upon a police officer in May.

Over the course of three days Baril engaged in an assault spree that left three civilians and one police officer injured. The spree began in Midtown on May 11, 2015, when Baril approached a group of people near West 35th Street and Sixth Avenue and hit a 20-year-old man in the back of the head with a hammer, prosecutors told Patch. A few hours later, Baril struck a 28-year-old woman in the head near Union Square Park and a 33-year-old woman in the head on West 17th Street, prosecutors said.

The second and third assaults occurred within five minutes of each other, prosecutors told Patch.

Two days later, Baril was approached by officers Lauren O’Rourke and Geraldo Casaigne on the corner of West 37th Street and Eighth Avenue which sparked a violent confrontation, according to the DA's office. Baril began to hit O'Rourke in the head and body with a hammer, which prompted Casaigne to shoot him four times in the back, prosecutors said.

"For two full days in 2015, New Yorkers were gripped with fear as a hammer-wielding man was on the loose in Manhattan," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said. "David Baril randomly attacked three strangers in three separate, public locations in the span of a few hours on a single day. Two days later, the heroic actions of two police officers brought his spree to an end, but not before the defendant turned his hammer on one of the officers."

Photo by NYPD/Associated Press