Manhattan
A homeless man went on an arson spree yesterday, lighting discarded Christmas trees on fire in lower Manhattan, authorities said.
Arren Metzker, 34, was spotted on Broadway near Thomas Street at 1:30 a.m. torching the trees, police said. He was arrested on charges of arson and criminal mischief.
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The man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend then tried to kill himself in Inwood on New Year’s Eve was charged with murder yesterday, police said.
Jonathan Pena-Castillo, of Paterson, NJ, ambushed Edith Rojas, 19, outside her Thayer Street home at around 3:45 p.m., Monday, cops said.
Rojas was stabbed seven times as horrified witnesses watched.
The attacker fled to Fort Tryon Park, where he turned the knife on himself and was taken into custody by police, cops said.
Pena-Castillo, 21, emerged from a medically induced coma at St. Luke’s Hospital and was charged with murder, weapons possession and menacing, police said.
Rojas had broken up with him several months before the fatal stabbing, relatives said.
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A pervert used his smartphone to spy on women in the bathroom of an Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village, authorities said.
José Ibarra-Hernande, 35, allegedly hid his iPhone in a restroom at Grano Trattoria at about 10 p.m. Dec. 20 and shot video of a woman using the toilet.
The woman did not realize she was being recorded.
Ibarra-Hernande was cuffed the next day, and charged with two counts of unlawful surveillance, authorities said.
He is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail.
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An intoxicated man tumbled to the tracks in a Harlem subway station yesterday, but avoided being struck by an oncoming train, authorities said.
The 74-year-old man fell off of the platform of the 135th Street station near St. Nicholas Avenue at about 1:15 p.m. while a downtown B train heading was approaching the station, according to an MTA spokesman.
The motorman was able to stop the train without striking the man. Only the first car made it into the station, the spokesman said.
The straphanger suffered serious head trauma, and was pulled onto the platform by FDNY rescuers, according to a spokesman.
He was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition.
Brooklyn
Thou shalt not covet . . .
An East New York man tried to slash his neighbor with a sword after being accused of inappropriately touching the neighbor’s wife, authorities said.
Christop Shattock, 37, was celebrating the new year with the couple in his apartment on Sheffield Avenue at about 2:25 a.m. Tuesday when he allegedly got too touchy-feely with the woman, law-enforcement sources said.
She went back to her nearby apartment, while her husband confronted Shattock, sources said.
Shattock allegedly took a sword and began swinging it at the man, who fled into the hallway.
Shattock followed him and allegedly swung again, but missed, gashing a wall near the staircase, causing the sword blade to break off the handle.
A neighbor called the police, and Shattock was arrested and charged with menacing and reckless endangerment, as well as criminal possession of a weapon, records show.
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A woman is fighting for her life after her ex-beau attacked her in Flatlands, authorities said yesterday.
The 42-year-old victim was found lying on the ground outside a house on Glenwood Road near East 52nd Street at 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
The suspect allegedly slammed the woman repeatedly against a car and left her badly beaten in an alley, police sources said.
She was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition with severe head trauma, police said.
No arrests had been made by last night.
Staten Island
Cops yesterday arrested a drug dealer who was spotted with his stash in plain view of a police officer in New Dorp, authorities said.
Danell Myers, 28, was standing at Richmond Road and New Dorp Lane at around 1:45 a.m. when the officer saw him with several small plastic bags of cocaine, court documents say.
The cop confronted Myers, who allegedly flailed his arms and kicked his legs to try to avoid being handcuffed.
When the officer placed Myers under arrest, the cop recovered nine zip-style bags of drugs and a knife, the court records say.
Myers was slapped with charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and unlawful possession of a knife, the records show.
Queens
An off-duty police officer was busted for drunken driving yesterday in Forest Hills, authorities said.
Wesam Isaac, 27, was collared at 1:45 a.m. after he rear-ended another car and tried to flee the scene, police said.
The driver of the car he hit was not seriously injured, but did complain of chest pains, cops said.
Isaac, who is assigned to the 77th Precinct, faces charges of DWI and leaving the scene of an accident, cops said.