Ax wacko cut off at the 'pass'
The man who allegedly flew into a hatchet-swinging rampage at a Lower East Side McDonald’s flipped out because a woman brushed him off — and ended up being cut loose without bail hours after his arrest.
Michael Palacios, 31, allegedly became enraged when the female customer rejected his repeated advances at the Delancey Street eatery Friday, prompting him to lash out and trash the place, a witness told The Post.
The outburst landed Palacios in handcuffs after cops caught up with him nearby.
He was arraigned on charges of criminal mischief and weapons possession late Friday but released without bail because neither charge is eligible for bail under the state’s criminal-justice reforms.
The incident began shortly before 2:30 a.m. at the McDonald’s after the suspect was spurned by
the unidentified woman, said Ruben G., an Uber Eats driver who caught the whole episode on his cellphone.
“Basically, he got into an argument with a girl, and then the girl rejected him,” Ruben told The Post.
“He was trying to talk to her and whatever,” he recalled. “He was asking for her number, where she was from, and I guess she felt some way. She replied back in a certain manner that she didn’t want to give too much info, and he kept pushing on.”
“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.
Ruben’s video shows three men intervene, with several of them throwing punches at Palacios, who appears to remain calm, at least at first.
Then he allegedly takes the ax from his backpack and chops up tables, a glass divider and a wall.
Palacios left on his bicycle and was arrested by police on Ludlow Street a short time later, law-enforcement sources said.