“You want a picture of me?”
A so-called crazed gunman was sprung with no bail by a judge tonight, a day after throwing the Flatiron District into a panic — and left the courthouse swinging his arms and sticking out his tongue as he cursed at reporters.
“F—ing morons!” Kenneth Clarfield, 69, railed as he left Manhattan Criminal Court.
Clarfield remains charged with menacing and weapons possession — both misdemeanors.
Cops say that on Wednesday afternoon, he’d waved a black gun and shouted murderous threats at a pair of construction workers as they stood on a scaffold outside his 11th-floor apartment, drilling into his window.
Clarfield concedes now that he did shout at the workers — but used the word “drilling,” not “killing.” He also insists he waved his fingers, not a gun, and that all he wanted to do at the time was make spaghetti and meatballs in peace and quiet.
“He thought the word ‘drilling’ was ‘killing,’ ” Clarfield said after court of one of the construction workers, Singh Dalwinder.
“He’s wearing a turban, and it’s covering his ears, and perhaps English is his second language,” Clarfield told reporters, adding quickly, “I have nothing against these people. I love southern Asian food. But I don’t like someone with a turban who I’ve never met drilling into my apartment.”
Clarfield said he couldn’t call 911, because he’d be on hold for “twenty minutes.”
“By that time this guy is on a plane to Arabia or wherever the hell he’s going,” Clarfield said.
No gun was ultimately recovered from Clarfield’s apartment, though prosecutors note that he had left the place — “to get a pepper,” he told cops — and returned before hostage negotiators and Emergency Service Unit cops descended on his East 22nd Street building. Two hours passed before cops broke down his door and arrested him.
“I thought they were going to allege that he threatened them with a spaghetti fork,” quipped defense lawyer Robert Fisher.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Abraham Clott released Clarkfield on his own recognizance despite prosecution’s request he be held on $2,000 bail.