Update: After 18 hours, Michael Palacios was released from jail and spoke out about the incident that occurred at Mcdonald’s.
He says he carries an axe because of the dangers of living in New York City.
“It’s New York City,” he told the NY Post. “I’ve been here for a long time, and there’s always been crime. I got hit in the head with a hammer at that corner like 10 years ago while I was walking to the store. Some random dude.
Cellphone footage from his rampage inside the restaurant shows Palacios trying to talk to a woman in the restaurant but he claims the incident didn’t have to do with being rejected by her, as a witness claims.
Palacios says it all started when a security guard refused him entry to the bathroom.
“I’m like, ‘Yo, bro, c’mon. Open the bathroom,’” he said. “And then I hear, ‘You, you don’t have to be mean about it.’ I’m like, ‘Shut the f–k up.’ I didn’t even look back. I just said it, and then it all became, ‘Oh, I’ll slap you.’ I’m like, ‘Where are you gonna slap me?’ And that’s when I came at the guy with the black tank top.”
“And eventually I just got tired of three dudes backing me up, and I just slapped one of them. It had nothing to do with attacking women,” he said. “The woman had no issues. I had no issues with the woman.”
After making the first strike, he was eventually ‘pummeled’ by the three men, which led to him pulling out an axe and smashing up the restaurant.
“Think about it. If you only think that the thing you can protect yourself with is a gun, we’re all going to go to f–king jail,” he said. “With a hatchet, I have my options — throw it or just smash a f–king table. With a gun, all you do is shoot.”
“I’m not psychotic. I just did what anybody would do when being pummeled. What would you do? Take out your phone and call 911?”
“I’m not a loose canon,” Palacios insisted. “I don’t think just because I’m angry and going through some s–t, I’m going to hurt other people. … People are saying, ‘Oh, these guys are lucky.’ It had nothing to do with luck.'”
He was arraigned on charges of criminal mischief and weapons possession and released without bail under the state’s controversial bail reform laws.
Earlier:
Kyle Lawson
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
Sep. 18—Police have arrested a man in connection with an ax-swinging rampage early Friday morning inside a McDonald’s in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Michael Palacios, 31, was arrested in connection with the incident which authorities said occurred just before 2:30 a.m.
The suspect, according to a video taken at the fast-food eatery, is seen taking punches from three men before he calmly retrieves the ax, smashes a floor-to-ceiling glass panel and hacks up several tables and walls.
Days after the footage made its rounds on the internet, an Uber Eats driver who shot it with his cellphone revealed to the New York Post what he believed had sparked the terrifying ordeal.
— Shakes Mcgoo (@McgooShakes) September 17, 2022
The witness told the Post he believed the suspect was drunk and “rejected” by a girl.
“He was talking to me; I can smell the liquor off him,” the man said.
“So basically, he got into an argument with a girl, and then the girl rejected him. She didn’t want to talk to him. He kept going at her…that’s when the guys she was with stepped in and they started arguing. It all led to that.”
When reached for comment, the defendant reportedly bragged to the Post about the millions of views the clip had generated on social media — where he was being called the “ax man.”
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