The ex-con who allegedly beat a 60-year-old woman with her own cane on the New York City Subway has reportedly been arrested – after officers initially cut him loose after he gave them a fake name.
Identified as 43-year-old Norton Blake, the suspect was picked up by the NYPD’s Warrant Squad around 6:30am Wednesday, local law enforcement sources told The New York Post – five days after the filmed attack on Bronx resident Laurell Reynolds.
It happened in the wee hours Friday, and saw Reynolds stripped of her walking stick by a hulking suspect believed to be Blake.
A beating of more than 50 strikes ensued, eventually bringing the disabled woman to the floor. Afterwards, footage of the attack went viral – leading to a boroughwide search for the man responsible.
After four days into the search, cops named Blake – a career criminal with nine priors – as a suspect. Cops initially said a call reporting an assault at the station came in at around 3:30am, but by the time they responded, the suspect was already gone.
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Norton Blake, 43, was reportedly arrested by the NYPD’s Warrant Squad around 6:30am Wednesday, five days after her is believed to have engaged in a brutal assault of a 60-year-old woman at a West Harlem subway station
Blake, a career criminal with at least nine other arrests, was named by NYPD officials as the sole suspect in the attack on Laurell Reynolds (seen on the floor), on Tuesday – four days after the Friday attack. The suspect was able to leave the scene after giving cops a fake name
Hours later, the head of the NYC Transit Authority revealed an MTA worker was the one who filmed the clip, while placing a call to the city’s Rail Control Center – which in turn called 911. Cops responded to the scene, before letting the suspect walk.
Police sources told The Post that officers who questioned Blake let him go without an arrest – or realizing his reportedly decades-long record – after he and the victim offered conflicting accounts of the attack.
Those officers’ handling of the suspect at the scene is now under investigation, sources further told the Paper – though an NYPD spokesman did not immediately comment when reached by DailyMail.com both Wednesday and Tuesday.
It’s unclear whether police viewed bystander video of the attack before or after they cut Blake loose.
The victim Reynolds, who uses a walker, voiced her outrage, telling the Post in a bedside interview: ‘They should’ve arrested him!’
‘I don’t deserve that. Not at all, not at all … and I pray to God that it doesn’t happen to no one else,’ said Reynolds. ‘They need to keep that man off the street.’
NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper named Blake as the prime suspect in the attack at a press conference on Tuesday.
Blake remained at large on Tuesday night, a law enforcement source confirmed to DailyMail.com.
Within days of the attack, the two-minute clip of the beating went viral – sparking a search for the man in footage after he successfully fled before cops arrived.
The attack happened just before 3:30am Friday, as Reynolds – who resides in the Bronx – was making her way through the subway station in Harlem.
In comments to The Post, Reynolds’ daughter revealed she only learned of the assault after seeing it circulating online.
‘Now I know,’ recalled 41-year-old Lashanne Reese Tuesday of how she realized what happened to her mom – after being left wondering why she never showed for a party she was having Saturday.
Of the harrowing footage – which raised eyebrows due to its vantage from inside a subway toll booth – she said: ‘I’m hurt – it hurts.’
‘That man could’ve killed my mother,’ she added, crying at times in fits of apparent frustration over how things were handled. ‘You all did nothing. I have a problem with that.’
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NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper named Blake as the prime suspect in the attack
The assailant showed no mercy as he struck Reynolds more than 50 times with her cane
Blake has a laundry list of priors, ranging from drug possession and assault to trespassing and resisting arrest, but reportedly gave a false name to cops on Friday.
‘We’re looking for him, and I’m pretty confident that in short order, he will be arrested and charged for that assault,’ Kemper assured reporters after revealing Blake to be their sole suspect.
Of how the altercation transpired, the top transit cop said he and others believed the suspect and Reynolds had engaged in some kind of argument as the victim traversed one of the station’s staircases.
‘A witness [said] they were arguing over something that might have dropped,’ Kemper said, claiming it was still unclear whether the two knew each other.
‘He might have been helping her carry something up the steps and something might have dropped, causing them to argue,’ he theorized.
The dispute soon devolved into one of the most heinous assaults on the system in recent memory, during which Blake allegedly hit Reynolds in the head, stomach, leg, arms, back, and hands.
The beating – which commenced after Blake snagged the woman’s walking stick from her hands – continued as she fell to the ground, and left thousands across the city and country shocked due to its prolonged and relentless nature.
Law enforcement sources further told the Post that Blake, while on the run, is well known to the NYPD – and has prior arrests for drug possession, assault, trespassing, resisting arrest, evidence tampering, and possessing stolen property.
Two of the assault offenses saw the suspect strike other NYPD officers, the insiders said – one in 2017 while resisting arrest and another in 2003 where he punched an officer in the face while he was off-duty.
The attack happened at a West Harlem train station at about 3:30am and was filmed by a NYC transit worker
The victim’s daughter was unsure why her mother was in Harlem at the time of the assault, and lamented that nobody on the platform jumped in to help when she was assaulted
Reese told the Post she was unsure why her mother was in Harlem at the time of the assault, and lamented that nobody on the platform jumped in to help when she was assaulted.
‘We’re supposed to be a loving, caring community. It’s unity in community – if we put unity in, we get a whole community,’ Reese said.
‘For them not to do that … this is why it’s going on everywhere,’ she continued. ‘Everywhere this is happening because there is no unity in our community.’
Of the suspect, she tearfully said: He needs help – No, he shouldn’t be on the street.
‘He just attacked my mother and beat her with a cane. He don’t belong on the street.
Subway crime has been labeled one of the city’s major crises and though statistics say transit offenses are down slightly, even progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said last month he was afraid for his family when they road the subway.
‘I know the statistics that transit crime is down, but when one of my family members gets on the train, I, too, get a knot in my stomach,’ he told FOX 5 News when asked about the perception that the subway system is becoming increasingly unsafe.
‘I live here, I’m raising my family here, so we have a lot more work to do,’ he added.
Major crime decreased 9.9 percent in the subway system in July from one year ago, according to the city’s statistics.
