Brayan Galiono Hernandez, of Hicksville, charged with car theft, assault

A Hicksville man who allegedly stole a Mercedes-Benz from a local mechanic’s shop Friday evening was later involved in multiple crashes, an altercation and an additional burglary, Nassau County police said.

The spate of crimes charged to Brayan Galiono Hernandez, 19, began sometime after 7 p.m. Friday, when he knocked down a security fence and entered Precision Auto Care through an unlocked garage door, according to a police news release. Hernandez then removed a 1995 Mercedes-Benz from the Jerusalem Avenue shop and continued on to crash it "multiple times," police said.

When confronted by a 35-year-old man who witnessed the erratic driving in the vicinity of First Street and Frevert Place, Hernandez struck the man multiple times in the head with a glass bottle, causing a "large laceration" that required treatment at a hospital, police said.

Hernandez was later located by a construction foreman inside a house being built on Fifth Avenue, police said. He then approached a police officer responding to the scene with a 4-foot level, which Hernandez swung at him, police said.

The officer subdued Hernandez with an electronic weapon. Hernandez was charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree grand larceny and criminal mischief related to the auto shop break-in, police said. He is also facing charges of burglary, weapons possession, second-degree assault and attacking a police officer, among other counts, police said.

Hernandez, following an evaluation at a hospital, was arraigned Sunday at Nassau County First District Court in Hempstead, where District Judge Madeleine Petrara-Perrin ordered him held on $75,000 cash bail, $150,000 insurance bond or $375,000 partially secured bond, court records show. He is due back in court Friday pending a grand jury indictment.

Defense attorney information was not immediately available Sunday.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.