Emergency responders render aid to the suspect shot by police on May 13, 2015. (credit: Kim Craig)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The suspect in a spate of hammer attacks remained hospitalized late Wednesday, after being shot in Midtown.

CBS2 has obtained exclusive video of one of the four attacks on Monday, which you can see above.

The video shows the suspect walking up behind a couple on West 17th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue and pulling a hammer out of his pocket before cracking the woman in the back of the head and running away.

It was one of four attacks that gripped the city.

The first attack happened at around 1:45 p.m. Monday near West 35th Street and Sixth Avenue, according to Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Aubry.

A 20-year-old man was talking with three women when the suspect approached and started yelling profanities before striking the man in the head with the hammer, Aubry said.

Around 5:10 p.m. Monday in Madison Square Park, a 34-year-old woman was walking when the suspect yelled profanities at her and struck her in the head, Aubry said.

Later that evening in Union Square Park, a 28-year-old woman was sitting on a bench and enjoying the day, when she saw the suspect with a pack of cigarettes in his hand, Aubry said. She made eye contact with him, and he abruptly got up and struck her in the head with the hammer, he said.

The suspect then proceeded about a block and a half west on 17th Street, where he struck the 33-year-old woman as seen above, Aubry said.

Police tracked the suspect to the subway station at 34th Street and Broadway, where he had used his MetroCard around 2 p.m. They obtained the suspect’s image, and matched it to a photo on file with the department, Aubry said.

Police had put up a wanted poster and offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to his arrest. Detectives began intense manhunt for the suspect — identified by police Commissioner Bill Bratton as David Baril, 30.

On Wednesday morning at around 10 a.m., two officers from the Midtown South Precinct — Officer Lauren O’Rourke, 27, and Officer Geraldo Casaigne, 36 — recognized the suspect at 37th Street and Eighth Avenue shortly before 10 a.m. and approached him, Bratton said.

The officers had just responded to an unrelated assault on 38th and Eighth Avenue when they spotted the suspect, Aubry said.

“As they approached him at the corner of West 37th Street and Eighth Avenue, he violently attacked them unprovoked – striking Officer O’Rourke with a hammer which is believed to be the same weapon used in Monday’s attacks,” Bratton said.

The suspect hit O’Rourke with the claw end of the hammer, Bratton said.

O’Rourke had been trying to make a call on her radio, saying she had been struck and had fallen down, Bratton said. In an attempt to save O’Rourke’s life, Casaigne fired a shot at the suspect and seriously wounded him, Bratton said.

The officer fired at the suspect four times and struck him twice, according to Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Aubry.

The shooting was caught on video.

NYPD video of shooting of hammer-wielding suspect:

Bratton said the suspect easily could have killed O’Rourke with a blow to the head. He said the suspect tried to strike her several times over a period of three seconds.

Police said Baril was hit in the torso, arm and head – bringing the Midtown morning commute to a halt.

Witnesses walking nearby were stunned.

“All we hear is just gunshots,” said Terrell Diehl of Elizabeth, New Jersey.

“I was, like, super unsettled,” said witness Anina Bose. “I really didn’t have any words. I was just so confused by what was going on, you know, because you don’t really see things like that in this neighborhood. And I mean, it was just unsettling.”

O’Rourke was being treated for abrasions to her shoulder at Bellevue Hospital Center Wednesday afternoon, and doctors had ordered her to undergo a CT scan, Bratton said. Casaigne was not injured, but was hospitalized for observation.