


The father of the unhinged man who allegedly clocked an NYPD officer over the head with a bottle in a caught-on-video, unprovoked Bronx attack told the Post his son is “crazy” and did it “because of his mental issues.”
Jose Garcia, 74 — father of the 45-year-old suspect by the same name – told The Post in an exclusive interview that his son was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was just 12 years old.
The bottle-wielding man – still suffering with his mental illness – told cops that “God told him to do this” after he approached the female cop from behind and attacked her on a busy sidewalk at 231st Street and Broadway in Kingsbridge Monday afternoon, police sources said.
He also allegedly claimed that there were “people in his house and no one did anything,” sources said.
“He’s my son. He’s crazy,” the elder Garcia said in Spanish, through a translator, as he pointed to his head. “He’s got a problem.”
“He’s got mental issues,” he added. “Besides his problems, he’s a nice man. He’s not a bad man. He’s got problems.”
The younger Garcia “likes drinking, too,” and “has medication but he’s not taking it,” according to his dad.
“I know it’s because of his mental issues that he did it,” the father said. “I want them to take him to a psychiatrist, put him someplace where he’s safe,” he said.
The injured cop was conducting smoke shop inspections with the New York City Sheriff’s Department when she was attacked at random around 2 p.m., authorities said.
Smoke shop employees were filming to ensure cops and the Sheriff didn’t tear the place up and caught the attack on camera by chance, police said.
Garcia lashed out as he walked by – hitting the uniformed female cop in the back of the head and then continuing to go after both the officer and her partner.
The shocking recording, posted to the NYC Scoop Twitter feed, goes on to show the partner and another person taking him down.
Garcia was arrested and charged with assault, obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, and harassment, police said.
He was ordered held on $30,000 bail or $100,000 bond in connection to the attack, records show.
The suspect has 11 previous arrests, many of which appear to stem from his mental health issues, sources said.
In 2014, he allegedly threatened to shoot employees at an unnamed business after he stopped taking his meds, the sources said. Then he fought the responding officers, yelling that he was on PCP and going to kill them.
Two years earlier, Garcia was again taken into custody and brought to the hospital after stopping his meds. But the details of that incident remain unclear.
He has also been arrested at least five times before for crimes such as robbery, grand larceny and weapons possession, sources said.
In September 2007, police busted him for selling items without a vendor license in Brooklyn, sources said.
The injured officer was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where she was treated and listed in stable condition, according to cops and sources.
She is stationed at a Queens precinct, but was in the Bronx for smoke shop inspections, sources said.
Smoke shops across the city have been illegally peddling marijuana and other products.