Man jumps out of restaurant freezer, attacks staff, dies

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - In a bizarre incident, police in New York say that a man on bail for double murder charges was hiding inside of a freezer at an Upper West Side restaurant Sunday morning and then sprang out and started attacking kitchen workers.

Carlton Henderson, 54, of Cave Creek, Arizona, had a knife and yelled something about Satan before threatening the brunch-time workers around 11 a.m. Sunday at Sarbeth's Restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue, the NYPD said. The workers were able to disarm and subdue Henderson, who became unconscious and unresponsive in the kitchen.

EMS responded and transported Henderson to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital where he was pronounced deceased. The NYC Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death and the investigation is ongoing.

Police sources told Fox 5 News that Henderson had been in the freezer since the night before. It was unclear how Henderson got into the restaurant and the walk-in freezer.

Police tape across the front of the restaurant greeted people who came to the neighborhood favorite as police collected evidence.

Henderson had a lengthy criminal record. He was just released on bail on August 1 from a Massachusetts jail in connection with a long-unsolved double murder in Boston. He had been arrested in St. Louis in 2017 in connection with that case. His next court date was scheduled for August 14 in Boston.

Henderson had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder for his alleged role in the killings of William Medina, 26, and Antonio Dos Reis, 22, on Windsor Street in Boston on May 7, 1988.

He was indicted for those murders on June 29, 2017, after re-investigation by the Cold Case Squad of the Boston Police Homicide Unit and prosecutors assigned to the Suffolk DA's Homicide Unit.

In that case, the judge released him on bail after suppressing evidence the prosecutors wanted to use against him in the murders.