On Dec. 30, at 7:45 p.m. with temperatures in the mid-40s, a distraught male, ages 25-35, took off his clothes and walked out onto Fourth Ave. between 13th and 14th Sts., sat down in the middle of traffic for several minutes and screamed obscenities as startled drivers honked their horns. After a few minutes, he stood up, walked onto the sidewalk and shouted at a passing woman and attempted to grab her. Another man approached and warned him away. The distraught man walked to 13th St. and sat down again in the middle of the intersection, then stood and sat while screaming. After several minutes, an ambulance from Cabrini Hospital arrived. The attendants, seeing the man yelling and foaming at the mouth, summoned help. Four firefighters from nearby Engine 3 on 13th St., responded and tried to speak to the man, but he ran, still naked, into Brothers Deli at 13th St. and Fourth Ave., sending startled shoppers fleeing outside. Twelve Ninth Precinct officers arrived in patrol cars, on bicycles and on foot. They cornered the nude man against the deli case and six officers subdued him. He was secured to a gurney and loaded into the ambulance. Detective Jaime Hernandez, Ninth Precinct community affairs officer, said the man was taken to Beth Israel Hospital “for observation.”
