Residents in a Manhattan condominium building say they’re living in fear, being terrorized by another resident.
The disturbing and bizarre behavior of Dr. George Michael Medeiros has been caught on multiple security cameras in and around the Chelsea condominium building where he lives.
“We are under siege, he runs this building” said resident Mary Conway-Spiegel. “You have no idea how afraid I am to get in the elevator to walk the dog.”
Residents say it’s a cycle: They call police after Medeiros, a local dentist, gets aggressive and sometimes violent. He’s been arrested multiple times – and gets right back out, every time.
"It's been scary, to the extent that I started to (be) afraid that he's going to blow up the building because he went insane," said Agnes Swiercz.
He’s been accused of supergluing emergency locks, damaging building property and nearly breaking the handles off of other apartments' fire doors with a baseball bat.
Fellow resident Bob Spiegel said his Vespa scooter was destroyed by Medeiros, who said he "jumped on it like he had just captured a bear, and he slashed the tires, broke the mirrors, broke the lights, totaled it." In a cellphone video, Medeiros even seems to admit it.
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"I come into the building, I am looking around walls, I am planning moves, how I would defend myself," Spiegal said.
Security video from Nov. 21 appears to show Spiegel come out of a parking garage down the street from the condo building. That’s where Spiegal says Medeiros attacked him.
"He jumped me on the street. Punched me, the cops came. They said they're not allowed to go into his apartment," Spiegal said. "This will end in a murder-suicide."
NBC New York buzzed Dr. Mederious’s condo Monday afternoon, and a man's voice who answered said the dentist was on the West Coast. But he was there the whole time, and hours later, an ambulance and police were called once again after Medeiros allegedly threatened to kill Spiegel, and bit a security guard the building has hired.
"Every time the police and the firetrucks and all the EMS coming here, I think we're at hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage this, and still we're terrorized for 18 months," said one neighbor who has witnessed similar scenes repeatedly.
The Spiegels said they were told by the district attorney's office that Medeiros was in court late Tuesday afternoon, with a judge releasing him on his own recognizance and a limited order of protection. His attorney maintains that Medeiros has been falsely accused.
