Cops evacuate church to search for MOMA’s dagger
Panic erupted at a Manhattan church on Monday after a 911 call came in about the possible sighting of the deranged homeless man accused of stabbing two Museum of Modern Art employees, law enforcement sources said .
The call prompted the evacuation of St. Francis of Assisi Church on West 31st Street just before noon – as cops stormed the building and ransacked fugitive Gary Cabana, 60 years, sources said.
But they arrived empty.
“Someone calls 911 and says, ‘Hey, the guy you’re looking for for the museum thing, I just saw him walk into the church,'” a senior law enforcement source told the Post.
“And then someone else says, ‘He walked into that building and he didn’t come out,’ the source said. “They find the guy and it turns out he’s not the good guy. He’s just a guy who looks like the MoMA guy.
“We are looking for him,” the source added. “We’ll get it.”
Cabana remains on the loose after allegedly jumping the MoMA counter on Saturday afternoon, stabbing two employees and fleeing – angry that his membership was revoked.
Both employees suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack.
Police say Cabana went crazy after learning that her membership at the famous museum had been canceled due to two recent explosions.
As it remains in the wind, Cabana has chatted on social media, berating the museum and taunting the cops for not being able to find it.
On Sunday night, he told the Post he “lost it” when he was banned from seeing Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” on Saturday.
“The stabbed girls were also in the BACKSTABBING,” Cabana told a reporter. “I don’t stab in the back, I only do frontside.”
In online rants on Facebook and Instagram over the weekend, Cabana accused MoMA of “a frame job” while ridiculing cops for not finding it and patrons for not stepping in when he attacked the two employees.
“They knew who I was from the start but the morons wasted hours searching the museum when I was OBVIOUSLY A LONG GONE with hundreds of witnesses WATCHING but no HEROES in the crowd that day”, he said in an Instagram screed.
“NYC turned to a group of MIND-YO-BIDNESS P—SIES,” he wrote. “Not a single person followed me as I walked down 53rd Street with a bloody face from which security hit me with a piece of Lucite….”
The terrifying attack was captured on surveillance video and released by police, showing Cabana hopping over the counter in rage, throwing himself at two cowering employees and stabbing them repeatedly. A security guard throws an object at his head – then Cabana runs away, the clips show.
Cabana’s online posts indicate that he frequented New York’s cultural institutions, including theaters, concert halls and museums.
He’s also a failed actor, with credit listed on IMDb under the professional name GoGo Toucette for his role as pop icon Madonna’s obsessed man.
In addition to the 2009 credit on “Madonna: Celebration – The Video Collection,” Cabana has claimed uncredited contributions to films, including 2005’s “War of the Worlds” and the 2000 film “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”
The Screen Actor’s Guild did not immediately confirm whether Cabana had a union card.
MoMA officials have not commented on the incident, except to say the museum is expected to reopen on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by Steven Vago
New York Post