A suspect with a history of violence against strangers has been arrested for the random October assault on actor Rick Moranis near his Upper West Side apartment, The Post has learned.
A sergeant assigned to Transit spotted Marquis Ventura, 35, at 96th Street and Broadway on Saturday and made the arrest; investigators were transporting the West Village man to Central Booking Saturday night, law enforcement sources said.
Ventura has a history of more than a dozen arrests, including five for felonies, the sources said.
His most recent arrest — for allegedly randomly pummeling a straphanger in the West 4th Street subway station — had been just two weeks after the attack on Moranis.
As with Moranis, that more recent victim, a 61-year-old man, was knocked to the ground.
When the victim’s pal tried to intervene, Ventura allegedly chomped down on the pal’s hand, and Ventura fled the station after a woman bystander thwacked him on the head with an umbrella, police said.
“Thanks to an eagle-eyed sergeant from @NYPDTransit, this suspect has been apprehended and charged,” the NYPD said in a tweet announcing the arrest in the Moranis beating.
The “Ghostbusters” star, 67, had been walking on Central Park West near West 70th street on his way to his nearby apartment when the stranger suddenly slugged him, knocking him to the ground.
The disturbing, unprovoked attack was caught on video, and other images of the suspect were captured from surveillance cameras.
Moranis suffered pain in his head, back and right hip as a result of the attack.
The Moranis attack is now the third open stranger-assault case against Ventura.
He remains charged in the Bronx with misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching a young woman in the face after asking her for money on a No. 5 train on April 13, according to law enforcement sources and public court records.
That victim, who was 23, told cops that Ventura displayed a large knife during the attack.