Police cordoned off Madison Street after a man jumped out a second-story window to escape after being attacked with a meat cleaver on Aug. 2.
We have some new information today about the bizarre and violent incident on Madison Street earlier this month in which a nearly naked man covered in blood jumped out of a second-story apartment window, frightening neighbors and leading police to a three-hour standoff with a suspect.
According to court documents obtained by The Lo-Down, police have charged a 37-year-old man, Ji Jin Pan, with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
While it remains unclear what sparked the attack, court documents reveal new details about what transpired between the two men before the victim broke a window and escaped at about 9:20 a.m. on Aug. 2.
“I hit him in the back of the head with a meat cleaver,” the suspect allegedly told police, according to sworn statements by the officers involved. “I followed him into the bedroom. I told him to jump out the window so that I wouldn’t kill him.”
The victim sustained three severe head wounds and cuts on his legs and arms, as well as a broken leg, according to documents. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical but stable condition. Police officers fluent in Mandarin took his statement and translated.
“He’s crazy. He tried to kill me. We were alone in the apartment. I was sitting at the table having breakfast. He came up behind me and started to stab me,” the victim told police. “I ran into the bedroom, closed the door, and hid on the top bunk of the bed. He managed to break through the door. And that’s when I fled out the window.”
Eyewitnesses on the ground, their attention attracted by the sound of breaking glass, saw the victim back out of the window, lower himself to a ledge and then fling himself to the sidewalk in front of a restaurant. He was bleeding profusely and wearing only underpants, leading some news outlets to initially misreport the nature of his injuries and that he was naked.
Pan then locked himself in the apartment, No. 1, and refused to allow police access until about three hours later, when he surrendered himself into custody. Upon entering the apartment, officers observed, “there was a large amount of what appeared to be blood on the floors inside said apartment, in the kitchen, bedroom and top bunk bed,” according to documents.
Pan is due to appear in court for arraignment on Aug. 29.
