An NYPD car on patrol. Photo: Reuters / Lucas Jackson.

Police in New York City have arrested a 30-year-old man for a shocking knife attack on a young Orthodox Jewish couple and their baby in lower Manhattan’s Battery Park.

Darryl Jones was taken into custody on Wednesday night and charged with assault, possession of a weapon and possession of the K2 drug. Jones has 12 prior convictions and was released from his latest prison sentence only in February, after serving time for attempted murder.

The attack occurred just before 6 p.m. Wednesday. Video showed Jones running up behind the couple, who were pushing their baby in a stroller through the park. Wielding a knife, Jones slashed at the mother and then the baby, before grappling with the father, who fought off Jones as his wife ran away from the scene with their child.

The unnamed family — visiting New York from their home in Belgium for the Passover holiday this week — were not seriously hurt, but the mother and father both sustained knife cuts to the face, head and lips, while the baby was cut on the chin.

One eyewitness to the attack praised the father’s courage during the attack, observing that his actions had likely prevented an even worse tragedy.

The father had managed to bend the blade of Jones’ knife as the two fought, the witness told the Orthodox Jewish news outlet Hamodia.

“He is a hero, that young guy,” the witness said. “He fought off the thug.”

While hate crimes charges against Jones have not been ruled out, police said that he did not make any antisemitic statements during the attack. The couple, however, are convinced that they were targeted for the reason that they are visibly Jewish.

“I feel horrified. This is such a horrible hate crime. We came here to visit in America,” the mother told the New York Daily News.  “There were more people in that park, but he came to attack us because we are Jewish.”

Jones’ attack on the Jewish couple came just one day after police arrested a homeless parolee, Brandon Elliot, for a brutal attack on a 65-year-old Asian grandmother in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

About 1,500 state parolees are presently living in homeless shelters around the city.