Patient’s tirade leads to chase

State police said an unruly psychiatric patient, whose actions led to a multi-agency pursuit all the way to the Bronx, assaulted an emergency medical technician and an East Meadow man during his alleged tirade that started on the Northern State Parkway.

On Sunday, at about 2:15 p.m., the New York State Police responded eastbound on the Northern State Parkway near the Willis Avenue exit to assist a North Shore LIJ ambulance with an unruly psych patient who was being transported from LIJ to South Oaks Hospital, police said. The patient, Kenneth Ashley, 30, of Jamaica, viciously assaulted the EMS member who was tending to him in the rear of the ambulance, police said. The operator of the ambulance pulled to the shoulder to help his partner, who police said was yelling for assistance.

After the EMS operator opened the back door to the ambulance and attempted to free his partner, the two were chased by the patient and one was assaulted. State troopers said a passing motorist, Peter Irsay of East Meadow, tried to intervene, but was punched in the face and knocked to the ground. Ashley then continued to attack the EMS worker, who was lying across the roadway, and struck him in the face repeatedly with a small laptop computer. Irsay, police said, tried to stop Ashley again but was thrown over the guide rail.

Several off-duty New York City Police Department officers stopped to assist and subdue the despondent man, police said, but Ashley was able to elude them and flee in one of the off-duty officer’s vehicles. The defendant was pursued by Nassau County Police and NYPD patrols where the subject crashed his vehicle in the Bronx, police said. Ashley resisted arrest, cops said, but was apprehended and transported to the psych ward of Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx for evaluation and treatment. The defendant faces several charges, including assault, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and grand larceny.