By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-11 15:36:17 | Updated at 2025-01-11 17:38:44
2 hours ago
The maniac who allegedly knifed a USPS worker to death during a squabble in a Harlem deli last week was caught on video brawling in Upper Manhattan last spring.
Jaia Cruz is seen in the middle of 3rd Avenue and East 121st Street wildly swinging a white picture frame at a man’s head in broad daylight at the start of the three-minute resurfaced clip.
The man then punches the trans woman in the face, and when she tries to run away, a second man charges up and bashes her head.
The second assailant then drags Cruz to the ground by her hair, where he continues to kick and beat her.
The first attacker proceeds to yank Cruz’s hair and grabs her purse before the pair saunter off, the video shows.
“Aye, yo, don’t kill that n—a, bro!” a bystander repeatedly shouts in the clip, which was posted on X by the account New York Sh–ty.
Cops confirmed a violent robbery occurred at the intersection on June 12. Two men, Jonathan Duran, 37, and Rysuan Braxton, 34, were busted with second-degree robbery after the pair punched a woman in the back of the head and threw her into the ground before swiping her purse and headphones, an NYPD spokesperson said.
Almost seven months later, Cruz, 24, was slapped with murder and manslaughter charges for the senseless killing of on-duty postal worker Ray Hodge III at Joe’s Grocery in Harlem on Jan. 2.
The unhinged woman flew into a blinding rage and allegedly spat on the father of two and repeatedly stabbed him after he cut her in line to order a sandwich.
Cruz had at least five prior arrests leading up to the bloody stabbing, including for waving a box cutter at a person in Midtown West in July 2020 and threatening she was going “to cut him,” law enforcement sources previously told The Post.
Hodge’s family grieved the death of their “hardworking, honorable and good” kin, whom they said had always been willing to help others.
“Ray touched the lives of so many and we all are truly blessed to have known and had the opportunity to love him,” his family wrote on a GoFundMe that has raised nearly $9,000 so far for funeral expenses.
Cruz, who is being held at Rikers Island, declined an interview request.
