Career criminal with 31 prior arrests slashes NYC cafe worker: cops

A career criminal with nearly three dozen prior arrests — including attempted murder — slashed a Manhattan cafe worker in the neck when the employee tried to give him the boot Wednesday afternoon, cops said. 

Wagner Louis, 32 – who cops say has 31 prior arrests – was “acting disorderly” inside Moka & Co., a Yemeni coffee shop on West 34th Street near Seventh Avenue, just after 3 p.m. when the 50-year-old worker asked him to leave, authorities said. 

Louis then flew into a rage, pulling out a metal object and slashing the employee on the neck, police said. 

The wounded staffer was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition but had stabilized by Thursday, police said. 

Meanwhile, the armed maniac fled the scene in a car, but cops caught up to him at 34th Street and Park Avenue, authorities said. 

Louis was charged with attempted murder, assault in the second and third degrees, second-degree menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. 

His rap sheet includes another attempted murder arrest – for allegedly shooting a 21-year-old man three times in the leg in the lobby of a building on East 22nd Street near Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn on Nov. 22, 2023, according to cops and a criminal complaint. 

In that case, a judge set bail at $150,000 cash or $300,000 bond, which Louis ultimately posted, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. 

His most recent prior arrest was on July 24, 2024 for criminal possession of stolen property, also in Brooklyn, police said. 

Louis has also been arrested for unauthorized use of a vehicle and grand larceny, cops said.