Victim of NYC hatchet attack speaks out about horrific incident

‘He didn’t even rob me,’ the victim said after the violent attack

The victim of a vicious hatchet attack in New York has opened up about his horrific ordeal.

Miguel Solorzano had just finished work on 15 August, when he went to deposit his check at a Chase Bank ATM on Broadway in downtown Manhattan, where a man came over to him wielding a hatchet.

“He didn’t even rob me,” Mr Solorzano said to the New York Daily News, “He took nothing. Nothing. He was crazy.”

Mr Solorzano, 50, was slashed by his attacker. “There were a lot of people in the street,” he explained in Spanish to the news outlet. “I yelled ‘Help, help, help!’ Another person talked to the police and another doctor came.” Mr Solorzano’s bloody axe was left behind, covered in blood.

In a shocking surveillance video, a man is seen coming up behind Mr Solorzano and striking the back of his leg with a weapon. The victim buckles in pain and is seen desperately trying to block the blade before falling to the floor. The victim flees the scene and the attacker then smashes all the ATMs, before throwing the weapon on the floor.

“He hit me so many times,” said Solorzano, who did his best to block the axe’s strikes with his arms.

Solorzano suffered injuries to the head and leg. A friend of the victim told the New York Daily News that he underwent two operations following the attack.

Police arrested 37-year-old suspect Aaron Garcia on Tuesday night, for attempted murder and assault, after officials found him vandalising storefront windows and a car with a hammer.

Sarah Garcia, the suspect’s mother told the New York Post that he had returned from Iraq in 2009 and had been suffering from mental health issues. He had obtained some treatment from a Veterans’ Affairs hospital, to little avail, according to Ms Garcia.