Harlem bomb scare suspect threatened cousin with explosive: prosecutors
Chontrell Wrenick, the Manhattan man accused of sparking a bomb scare outside an East Harlem NYPD stationhouse, had threatened his cousin with the explosion, claiming that the blast would kill both of them, Manhattan prosecutors said Friday.
“I’m going to take us both out,” Wrenick, 50, told his cousin after he was picked up outside of his E. 130th St. apartment building Wednesday.
Just minutes after getting into his cousin’s Honda, Wrenick pulled the device from a camouflage tote bag and showed it to his relative, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Antonio Melchionna said.
Wrenick also pulled on his cousin’s shirt collar, trying to choke the man, Melchionna said. When that didn’t work, he pulled a 16-inch machete from the same tote bag and struck his relative in the back of the head with it.
The cousin drove to the 25th Precinct stationhouse at E. 119th St. and Lexington Ave. in East Harlem at about 11:50 a.m., officials said.
He immediately told cops outside about the stationhouse about the attack and how Wrenick had a bomb.
“He’s trying to kill me! He has a machete!” the cousin screamed as he sought help, police said.
The pipe bomb was found on the floor of the Honda’s back seat. It was taped to two other cylinders that read “cooking gas,” officials said.
Investigators determined that the bomb could have exploded, although it was a low-yield explosive. Detectives found the pipe bomb “contained various hardware which increases the possibility of physical harm once ignited,” Melchionna said.
“The conduct here is alarming and had the potential to harm several innocent civilians,” the prosecutor told Judge Pamela Goldsmith at Wrenick’s arraignment Thursday morning.
Cops hit Wrenick with multiple weapon possession raps as well as charges of reckless endangerment and assault.
Wrenick hadn’t been arrested in more than a decade, but his actions on Wednesday led Melchionna to request he be held on $100,000 bail. Judge Goldsmith ordered him held on $75,000 bail and enrolled him in a problem solving and alternative to court program to handle the underlying psychological problems that led to Wrenick making the bomb.
Police described Wrenick as “paranoid” and “someone with mental health issues.”
Wrenick’s neighbors described him as an unstable man who harassed them for months before he began tinkering with bombs.
“It’s been almost a year [of harassment],” said one neighbor, who asked not to be named out of fear of Wrenick. “I’ve been begging for help, and it takes a bomb.”
Doorbell camera footage shared with the Daily News shows Wrenick arguing and yelling at his fellow building tenants. In another video, Wrenick waved a golf club outside their door while littering the hallway with what the neighbors said were drug test strips.
“He was harassing us, 3, 4, 5, 6 in the morning, at night, making noises, screaming, yelling on a bullhorn making noises,” another neighbor charged. “He was coming upstairs, harassing us.”
