What on earth is going on with the world?
A man slashed his wrists Thursday during a live broadcast of the Today show.
It happened as Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie were outside in Rockefeller Plaza. The man slashed both his wrists and his forearms. NBC’s cameras didn’t show the incident, but several people in the crowd captured photos and video.
Queens man Pak Chong Mar was unkempt and in his 50s, witnesses said. He wore a grey T-shirt and white baseball cap when he staggered up to “Today” show fans outside 10 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan and used broken English to tell anyone who would listen that the Internal Revenue Service was corrupt and that the agency “ruined his life.”
Mar was shouting about peppermint tea and trying to get bystanders to read a pile of papers — reportedly IRS documents of some sort — until he tossed the stack into the air about 7:50 a.m.
He then whipped out a pocket knife with three or four-inch blade and yelled “I’m going to cut myself!” twice before hacking at his own wrist.
Someone wrestled the blade from Mar before he pulled out a second knife and started cutting away at his other wrist. NYPD cops and plaza security guards rushed towards the man with pepper-spray and tackled him, sending him sprawling.
“It happened really fast — and then he was down,” said 21-year-old Jossie Edwards, a tourist from Easley, S.C.
He was so bloody that police used their feet to restrain the man while waiting for medical personnel to arrive. Gore was everywhere, said Edwards’ mother, Kim McLeroy.
“They didn’t want to touch him,” McLeroy said.
He screamed, “Move my head!” as personnel restrained him and loaded him into an ambulance, McLeroy said. Mar was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital and is expected to survive.
The “Today” crew had planned to do a segment outside until Matt Lauer announced to the crowd that the appearance was cancelled because of the “incident,” McLeroy said.
Check below for photos and video of the incident. We’re glad no one other than the crazy man was injured.
via NY Daily News
