Suspect with 11 prior arrests who hit NYPD cop said ‘God’ told him to do it

The unhinged brute with a long rap sheet who was caught on video whacking an NYPD officer in the head with a bottle told cops that “God told him to do this,” law enforcement sources said Tuesday.

Jose Garcia, 45, was filmed walking up behind the uniformed female officer as she stood on a busy sidewalk at 231st Street and Broadway in Kingsbridge Monday afternoon. He suddenly lashed out as he walked by, hitting her in the back of the head before attacking her and her partner.

The shocking recording, posted to the NYC Scoop Twitter feed, then shows the officer and another person taking him down.

Garcia, of Kingsbridge Heights, was arrested and charged with assault, obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, and harassment, police said.

He allegedly ranted to officers after his arrest that God had “told him to do this,” and that there were “people in his house and no one did anything,” sources said.

The suspect has 11 previous arrests, many of which appear to stem from his mental health issues, sources said.

In 2014, he allegedly threatened to shoot employees at an unnamed business after he stopped taking his meds for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Then he fought the responding officers, yelling that he was on PCP and going to kill them.

Two years earlier, Garcia was again taken into custody and brought to the hospital after stopping his meds. But the details of that incident remain unclear.

He has also been arrested at least five times before for crimes such as robbery, grand larceny and weapons possession, sources said.

In September 2007, police busted him for selling items without a vendor license in Brooklyn, sources said.

The injured cop – who was conducting smoke shop inspections with the New York City Sheriff’s Department when she was attacked – was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where she was treated and listed in stable condition, according to cops and sources.

She is stationed at a Queens precinct, but was in the Bronx for smoke shop inspections, sources said.

Smoke shops across the city have been illegally peddling marijuana and other products.

The incident comes weeks after on-duty NYPD cop Brett Boller was shot in Jamaica, Queens while chasing down a man who got into a fight with another bus rider.

He was released from the hospital Friday.