A vagrant man who confronted and slashed the head of a church custodian who urinated on his car in the East Village has been arrested and charged with attempted murder, police announced Friday.
Roberto Ortiz, 28, who is believed to be homeless, attacked John Mach, 54, with a box cutter on January 21st near the Church of the Immaculate Conception on East 14th Street. He is said to have caused a cut. He required 16 stitches.
Ortiz, a resident of the Bowery Men’s Shelter, was arrested Thursday night and is also charged with assault, possession of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance and false impersonation, police said.
Police said he had one prior arrest for grand theft, but details of that incident were not immediately available.
Mach, a widow from Puerto Rico, told the Post shortly after the vicious assault that she approached the unscrupulous urinator to protect the sanctity of the workplace.
“He was trying to urinate between two cars and then on the wall of the church, and we can’t let that happen,” Mach said, adding that he even gave the man a key to the church’s bathroom.
Instead of accepting the offer, the monster told Mach, “Fuck you,” he recalled.
Mach said the “unstable” man became enraged, started shouting profanities and then began to attack her.
“There are children there, there are elderly people there. He started cursing at me and then swung at me, so I defended myself.”
After the confrontation turned physical, Mach said the deranged man threatened further violence.
“My shift ended at 3 p.m. and I stayed because he threatened two of my co-workers,” the manager said. “He had a knife and said he was going to cut them up.”
“He threatened me, so I punched him, defended myself, and knocked him out. I had to protect myself and the church.”
According to the victim, the violent tramp returned moments later with a box cutter and surprised Mach with a sneaky attack from behind before running away laughing.
“He walked away, changed his clothes, and while I turned my back to help a woman in a wheelchair go down the ramp, he came out of nowhere and slashed me,” Mach said.
“I left her where she was, tore off her long johns, tied them around her neck and chased her,” said the injured parish administrator.
According to the victim, the creep did not say anything during the brutal attack.
“I felt something hot on my neck, and then I realized that blood was flowing all over my body,” he recalled.
Mach said he chased the assailant for more than half a block, but the suspect fled.
A few weeks later, another vagrant went on a rampage at the same Catholic church, toppling a statue of Jesus and then being caught sleeping there, causing $4,000 in damage, police and parish officials said.
“He became violent, destroying bookshelves and overturning statues of Jesus,” a church official who requested anonymity said this week about the incident.
“So it was really scary because it was like this explosion of violence that was out of control.”
The NYPD’s 9th Precinct, which covers the church area, has seen declines in five of the seven major crime categories, according to the latest police statistics.
However, there was a slight increase in felony assaults, with 29 similar crimes reported since January, compared to 25 in the same period last year.
Records also show that one more robbery (19) has been reported in the precinct so far this year compared to 2023.
