JUNE 10--New York City cops are on the hunt for a man who used an ax to chop down a Brooklyn tree early Wednesday morning.

The bizarre 2 AM incident was captured by a surveillance camera attached to a neighboring building in the borough’s Kensington neighborhood. Video of the tree assault (seen above) was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday.

The video shows the attacker taking a total of 53 whacks at the tree over approximately five minutes. On several occasions, neighborhood men can be seen seen trying to stop the ax wielder from downing the tree. It does not appear that the primary motive of the attacker was to steal the bicycle chained to the tree (though, 20 minutes after first striking the tree, the portly perp returned to the block and carried the bike away).

The group of men watching the arborcide of the approximately 20-foot gingko tree were congregating in front of 352 East 8th Street, a 24-unit apartment building. The property is within the jurisdiction of the NYPD’s 66th Precinct, where officers are investigating the ax attack.

As seen in this series of photos, when a TSG reporter today arrived at the crime scene, the tree’s corpse remained on the sidewalk. At abut 12:30, workers with the Department of Parks and Recreation's Brooklyn Forestry Division arrived and began cutting up the tree for disposal.

Neighborhood residents and the building’s owner identified the ax murderer as a former building resident named Francisco. The owner--who said he planted the $750 tree several years ago--told TSG that the ex-tenant was a “big problem” who continued to create trouble even after his tenancy ended.

The landlord told TSG that he filed a police report about the chopping down of the tree. The building superintendent reported that video of the attack was uploaded to YouTube by his 25-year-old son. One angry resident told TSG that he had tended the gingko for the past seven years, watering the tree and trimming its branches.

Detective Cheryl Crispin, an NYPD spokesperson, told TSG late this afternoon that cops were investigating the ax incident, but that no arrests had been made. (5 pages)