A wildman known as “Ice Pick Nick” who has been terrorizing the East Village for years has finally been arrested and jailed.
Just before 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, neighborhood tormentor Nicholas Babilonia Jr. menaced a person on Avenue C with what appeared to be a firearm, before throwing the victim’s bicycle, according to criminal courts records.
The unhinged vagrant, who boasts a rap sheet 37 arrests long, then grabbed a metal pipe and swung at his target, narrowly missing him, the complaint said.
The violent and mentally ill vagrant was charged with second-degree attempted assault, a felony, and menacing, and held on $20,000 bail, records show.
But the fact that Babilonia has managed to repeatedly assault and harass people along the block for years illustrates just how broken the city’s revolving-door system of dealing with the violent mentally ill is, according to outraged experts and locals.
“The system is just broken, they can’t decide what to do with him,” retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor Michael Alcazar told The Post.
“If he’s violent and emotionally disturbed . . . they should just keep him in the hospital,” he said. “Somebody is dropping the ball.”
Residents cried that for years, Babilonia, who camps out on Avenue C near his childhood home, avoided jail despite cops being repeatedly called over violent attacks.
“Clearly they do not understand the urgency of a homeless man who’s threatening to kill people,” 65-year-old Garrett Rosso, who first encountered Babilonia in July 2021 when he charged across Avenue C and tried to stab him with an ice pick.
Rosso said Babilonia attacked him again on May 1, as he left Tompkins Square Park with his 12-week-old German Shepherd. The serial attacker allegedly sprinted toward him while screaming, “I’ll kill you and your dog.” He then violently grabbed the older man.
Police eventually arrived to find Babilonia in front of Rosso’s apartment building, according to the resident and photos shared with The Post of the incident. He was taken by cops to Bellevue.
Three days later, Babilonia was loose and hunkered down outside two doors down from Rosso’s building.
“He needs sustained help, and every agency is failing him,” said Rosso, who added he had dragged Babilonia out of the path of an M14 bus on Avenue A last month.
“If he doesn’t get that help, he’s either going to kill someone, or going to kill himself.”
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed cops responded to the May 1 call about Babilonia, but did not elaborate on why he was not arrested.
Babilonia’s terror has extended to his own family members, some of whom installed facial recognition security to prevent him from entering their apartment buildings, according to his father.
“I don’t know why the city doesn’t have help for these people and take them out of the street,” Nicholas Babilonia Sr. said of his son. “I can’t control him — no one can control him.”
Babilonia’s arrests go back three decades, and include drug possession, vandalism, and a menacing charge in a June 8, 2023 incident in which he threatened his sister with a pipe on Avenue C after she bought him food, police sources said.
He was taken to the hospital for observation after threatening his sister and released.
A week later, resident Chris Ryan claims, he saw Babilonia kicking over garbage cans and a Revel scooter on Avenue C and began recording — only to have the loon chase him into a CTown and kick him in the shins.
Despite the video evidence, police called to the scene said they were going to send Babilonia “away for [medical] evaluation” — and his assailant was back out on Avenue C the next day, Ryan, 54, said.
Last week, on May 4, Babilonia brandished a knife at customers seated in the outdoor dining shed at Royale, but fled by the time cops arrived, according to the restaurant’s owner.
After spotting him outside the next morning, cops again were called to Royale, but did not arrest Babilonia, said the owner, who requested anonymity for safety concerns.
“Anyone who thinks they’re being empathetic or charitable by letting this guy rot out on the street, provoking the next violent encounter, has to examine their own perspectives,” said Ryan, who now carries mace and a knife for protection. “It’s pretty obvious the system is failing us all, Nick included.”
Despite Babilonia clearly needing mental health treatment, it’s unlikely he will enter a much-needed program through the courts, warned Lance Fletcher, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.
“Often the defendant is not on board or disagrees that he needs mental health treatment,” and their agreement to participate is required, he said.
“If the defendant disagrees, then he’s presumed innocent and the prosecutor has to prove charges against him … and penalties are jail or probation, but not mental health treatment.”
An NYPD spokesperson said the Commander Officer for the 9th Precinct, which covers the East Village, “is working with various community partners to ensure that resources are available for this individual.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
