Ex-con held in machete hack death

AN EX-CON was caught on camera using a machete to hack to death a Florida man visiting Queens for a friend’s birthday, according to authorities.

Police nabbed Ronald O’Neil in the Wednesday slaying of Hakeem Griffin, 22.

Griffin was visiting from Palm Coast, Fla., when he encountered O’Neil, 23, clad in black, outside a pizza parlor near 57th Ave. and 92nd St. in Corona, police said.

They got into an argument, and O’Neil allegedly drew the machete and began hacking at Griffin.

Medics rushed Griffin to Elmhurst Hospital, where he died. He had a ticket back to Florida for the day after he was killed.

O’Neil lives in the LeFrak City development, a few blocks from where Griffin was murdered, the same neighborhood where Griffin spent his teenage years. Griffin’s mom moved the family to Florida to get them away from the dangers of the city.

“Anytime he came into a room, he would be the one to light it up,” Griffin’s grieving sister Mika Hicks said. “No matter time nor place, he would make you laugh.”

O’Neil said nothing at his arraignment Friday night.

His defense lawyer refused to comment.

Surveillance video captured a man fitting O’Neil’s description attacking Griffin then taking off with a knife. After serving a search warrant on his apartment, police said they found bloody clothes like the ones seen on the man in the video.

He has 14 prior arrests dating to 2011, sources said.