Man who hurled furniture from 20th floor of NYC building has history of mental illness: family
The man who launched a lawn chair and other patio furniture off a 20-story Midtown Manhattan highrise Monday is a Haitian migrant who was in the midst of a delusional, paranoid crisis two days before the bizarre, caught-on-camera episode, his brother told The Post.
On Saturday night, Jean Bernard Olivier, 51, received a phone call from his younger brother and the accused furniture-thrower, Jean Luke Olivier, 33, who told his sibling, “People are trying to kill me.”
“I told him he needed to go see a doctor, he needed psychiatric help,” said Bernard, who learned about Luke’s arrest from The Post.
It wasn’t the first time Luke displayed manic behavior, according to his older brother.
Luke moved from his native Haiti to live with Bernard in Miami in early 2023 — but was kicked out of the home in the winter because of “anger” issues, he said.
“He had some trouble with my wife, my daughter … They were arguing,” Bernard recalled. “When I got home from work one day, I told him he had to leave.
He said Luke first moved to Arkansas to live with a girlfriend, then relocated to the Big Apple after the two broke up.
“From the way he’s been acting” since arriving in the US, “I think he has mental problems,” Bernard said.
Luke visited the Consulate General of Haiti at 555 Fifth Ave. and East 46th Street before allegedly flipping out, according to police sources.
He’s seen in videos tossing a chair and several wooden planks from a landing one level down from the roof of the building, which is home to offices and a Barnes & Noble on the ground floor.
One video shows a motorcyclist narrowly avoiding one of the objects as it falls on the street below, while another shows a wooden plank breaking on top of a city bus.
In one clip, Luke waves his arms around as onlookers inside a building across the street film the troubling episode.
Thankfully, no one was injured, cops said.
Luke was arrested and slapped with felony reckless endangerment and criminal mischief charges.
He pleaded not guilty, and was released without bail by a Manhattan judge on Tuesday.
Luke could not be reached for comment.
