{"id":12102,"date":"2025-10-22T15:38:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/12102\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:38:27","slug":"sword-wielding-maniac-revealed-chilling-reason-for-brooklyn-nyc-subway-murder-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/12102\/","title":{"rendered":"Sword-wielding maniac revealed chilling reason for Brooklyn NYC subway murder: sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deranged crook with a mile-long rap sheet allegedly confessed to\u00a0savagely beating a stranger to death<\/a>\u00a0outside a Brooklyn subway station \u2014 coldly telling cops he didn\u2019t like the way the victim \u201clooked at him,\u201d sources revealed Wednesday.<\/p>\n

David Mazariegos, 25, was charged with murder in the senseless Tuesday afternoon assault near the Jay Street-MetroTech Station, law enforcement sources said.<\/p>\n

The creep flashed a sinister, partially toothless grin Wednesday as he was carted out of a Manhattan courthouse, where he was first arraigned on charges from a past case and his dramatic arrest with a samurai sword in Times Square hours after the brutal slaying.<\/p>\n

David Mazariegos getting walked out of Manhattan Court to be brought to Brooklyn for his second arraignment on Oct. 8, 2025. Steven Hirsch<\/p>\n

Mazariegos allegedly beat a man to death outside the Jay Street-MetroTech Station in Brooklyn. Steven Hirsch<\/p>\n

The murder suspect was found with a long bladed weapon resembling a samurai sword. Chris Gonzalez @TheCritterfer<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy\u2019d you take my planet?\u201d Mazariegos raved outside the courtroom when asked why he killed the man.<\/p>\n

Sources said the sicko allegedly copped to attacking 64-year-old Nicola Tanzi in downtown Brooklyn because the hapless man held a subway gate door open for him \u2014 an act of kindness that the hotheaded hoodlum told cops he disliked.<\/p>\n

A shockingly brutal attack followed, with the assailant repeatedly pummeling the victim\u2019s face and stomping on his head up to 15 times, sources said.<\/p>\n

The assault lasted 10 minutes before the sadistic attacker took Tanzi\u2019s wallet and ID \u2014 which delayed his identification by police \u2014 and left him\u00a0battered and unconscious near Lawrence and Willoughby streets, according to sources.<\/p>\n

The brutalized man\u00a0died roughly an hour later in New York-Presbyterian Hospital Brooklyn Methodist.<\/p>\n

Tanzi, who had lived in Brooklyn for over 20 years, worked in security and planned to retire next year, his pals the The Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a good friend. He was a really good guy,\u201d said Carmina Racaro, owner of a flower shop near Tanzi\u2019s Bensonhurst apartment. \u201cHe would come here for espresso, ask \u2018How are you?\u2019 He was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racaro said Tanzi originally hailed from Bari, Italy, and was a regular church usher during the Italian-language church services at the Catholic St. Dominic parish. He also belonged to an Italian club in Carroll Gardens, friends stated.<\/p>\n

Tanzi\u2019s alleged attacker, of the Bronx, has at least 33 past arrests, including both sealed and unsealed cases, and is listed on the city\u2019s transit recidivist database, sources said.<\/p>\n

In between arrests, Mazariegos appears to be a gifted parkour enthusiast and street artist, according to dozens of social media videos alternately showing his brightly colored artworks and him engaging in feats of athleticism, including flipping into a river, twirling nunchucks and hanging off the Brooklyn Bridge\u2019s cables. \u201cIM DA ILLEST GRAPHIC ARTIST,\u201d boasts the \u201cDartist Mazarati\u201d YouTube page apparently belonging to Mazariegos.<\/p>\n

Most of his arrests going back to 2019 involved small-time offenses such as fare evasion, graffiti and petty larceny, according to the sources.<\/p>\n

But records also hint that Mazariegos could violently snap, as he allegedly did at a Manhattan security guard in June \u2014 an assault that showed\u00a0eerie similarities<\/a>\u00a0to the fatal beating in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

David Mazariegos allegedly beat a man to death and robbed him at a Brooklyn subway station. DCPI<\/p>\n

A month later, Mazariegos allegedly jumped on top of a car in the Bronx, shattering its windshield, while maniacally yelling, \u201cCome get me. Y\u2019all afraid of the government,\u201d court records state.<\/p>\n

He was released on his own recognizance in the case, which was his last arrest before the beating death in Brooklyn, records show.<\/p>\n

The shocking attack prompted NYPD officials to send a department-wide emergency alert to cops\u2019 phones during the manhunt for the killer that ended up\u00a0leading to Mazariegos\u2019 arrest, said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.<\/p>\n

\u201cEagle-eyed cops working near Times Square recognized this perp from the photos they had just received and immediately brought this dangerous criminal into custody,\u201d she wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Street photographer Christopher Gonzalez, 36, chanced upon the arrest after he got a Citizen app notification that someone was spotted walking into a West 42nd Street store with a sword.<\/p>\n

Mazariegos bizarrely was laughing when NYPD cops swarmed him, a stunned Gonzalez recounted.<\/p>\n

Mazariegos was arrested by the Manhattan transit task force. Chris Gonzalez @TheCritterfer<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t have the sword drawn or anything like that, but there was a samurai sword,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when I saw him yesterday, before I knew it was the same person (as the Brooklyn beating), I\u2019m like, \u2018This guy\u2019s not right in the head.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources said Mazariegos told cops he bought the sword on Canal Street. He also carried a set of nunchucks, according to the sources.<\/p>\n

The wacko was hauled into Manhattan Criminal Court to be arraigned on a weapons charge, as well as on an outstanding larceny warrant for allegedly stealing from a deli\u2019s tip jar on September 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the people\u2019s understanding that he is going to be immediately arrested by detectives for a homicide,\u201d Manhattan Assistant District Attorney James Edwards-Lebair said.<\/p>\n

Two NYPD detectives stood behind a handcuffed Mazariegos, who wore what appeared to be a torn white Tyvek suit.<\/p>\n

Outside the courtroom, Mazariegos raved about his dead ancestors, blamed Western medicine for his family\u2019s demise and questioned how many bodies were buried under the courthouse.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Steven Hirsch,\u00a0 Estrella McDaniel, Tina Moore and Jennifer Bain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deranged crook with a mile-long rap sheet allegedly confessed to\u00a0savagely beating a stranger to death\u00a0outside a Brooklyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98,57,141,9,56,63,65,64,615,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-12102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-mta","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-subway","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}