A woman who was slashed in the face in January is suing the city for $10 million, claiming that her assailant was "improperly discharged" by the Health and Hospitals Corporation's psychiatric ward.
The Daily News reports that the victim, 25-year-old Amanda Morris, said that the mentally ill man accused of attacking her was "known to be an extreme danger to others" because he had 31 previous arrests before he slashed her—but HHC released him shortly after he was treated.
Morris was allegedly attacked on West 23rd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues while walking to her job at Whole Foods. She told police that she didn't have any contact with her alleged attacker, 42-year-old Kari Bazemore, before he struck.
Amanda Morris posted these photos to her Facebook page, "Today was a difficult day that I never thought I would have to go through..."
"It was unprovoked and I did not have any association with this man prior to the incident, we have never seen each other," she wrote on Facebook in January. Immediately after the attack, she didn't realize she had been cut—"I felt like I got punched in the face," she told the Post.
Bazemore was arrested after a tipster recognized himf rom a surveillance video and charged with felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon. He was also accused of attacking other women in Manhattan and the Bronx.
In 2015, Bazemore allegedly hit a Bronx woman in the face with a bottle and called her a "white bitch." He was released on bail on December 31st, 2015, and allegedly slashed another woman in the face with a knife on January 1st.
Bazemore's family told the News that he had been in and out of psychiatric institutions for the past five years and had been receiving treatment for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
In January, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters, "while the suspect has no public record of mental illness, his family members are telling detectives that he does. If you could see his actions prior to both instances, you could see a man clearly in emotional distress."
Bazemore is currently in custody and his criminal cases are pending.
