Metro

Queens man freaks over IRS bill, attempts suicide outside ‘Today’ studios

DRAMA:Pak Chong Mar is taken away yesterday after he slit his wrists, leaving behind a pool of blood and stunning “Today” show spectators.

DRAMA:Pak Chong Mar is taken away yesterday after he slit his wrists, leaving behind a pool of blood and stunning “Today” show spectators.

Pak Chong Mar

Pak Chong Mar (Dennis A. Clark)

DRAMA: Pak Chong Mar is taken away yesterday after he slit his wrists, leaving behind a pool of blood (top) and stunning “Today” show spectators. (
)

A distraught Queens man, ranting about a $1.3 million IRS bill, tried to kill himself outside the Rockefeller Center studios of NBC’s “Today” show yesterday morning, authorities said.

Pak Chong Mar, 72, sliced his wrists with a boxcutter at about 7:50 a.m. after screaming “‘The IRS is trying to take my money! I’m not a freeloader!” witnesses told The Post.

An NBC security guard quickly tackled Mar as frightened tourists ran for cover, fearing a bloody terror attack like the recent murder of a British soldier on a London street.

“I saw him take slice after slice. I saw the blood gushing,” said Kellie Ostransky of Arizona, in town to celebrate her birthday with her twin sister. “The first thing I thought about was that soldier in London, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this is happening!’ ”

Mar tried to hand out a note he’d written on an IRS seizure notice, seeking help for his tax woes, and cut himself when no one would take one, witnesses said.

The note said the feds were poised to seize nearly $1 million from his bank accounts after earlier taking about $300,000, according to a copy his family shared with The Post.

“IRS ruin our lifes [sic] . . . I can’t fight the IRS buracracy [sic] without the public put pressure on them. Thank you,” it read in part.

Mar continued flailing after the security guard took him down and cops stationed nearby jumped in. He had to be sprayed with Mace before he was subdued. His wounds were not life-threatening.

Ostransky’s twin sister, Kimberlee Sangiovanni, an occupational therapist from Phoenix, said, “Al Roker and Matt Lauer” — reeling since the Ann Curry fiasco — “came out and looked at the scene. Al Roker just shook his head and went back inside. Matt Lauer went in shortly after.”

Mar has a history of freaking out when stressed, his daughter said from his home in Corona.

In 1995, he chopped off three of his fingers at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing to protest an eviction — and refused doctors’ attempts to suture them back on.

“He has these big overwhelming issues, the IRS, getting evicted. It’s the stress. It’s really gets to him. In those moments, he feels as if he doesn’t have any help,” said the daughter, Lisa Yu Paks, 40.

Paks said the retired Mar “was a factory worker, ironing shirts and making pennies. He put all money into stocks.,”she said, calling her father’s actions “a cry for help.”

She said the family doubted he was trying to kill himself.

“I think it’s a cry for help. If it was suicidal he would have done something much more drastic. He can’t figure out his stock trading situation. He needs someone to help him sort it all out,“ she said.

Meanwhile, cops arrested a 17-year-old Kentucky boy who made a ominous tweet from outside the NBC studio during the show, saying, “No one is waving hello in the Today Show crowd. They are waving goodbye. they all die after the show.”

Andrew Szurgot spent the day in the Midtown North station house, and awaits arraignment on misdemeanor charges. The kid confessed to making the tasteless tweet, a law-enforcement source said.

Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger, Larry Celona and David K. Li