Suspect, 51, in fatal stabbing attacks around New York City had 8 prior arrests including one last month
The unprovoked attacks took place on Monday morning within two-and-half hours of each other at various locations around Manhattan
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A man who carried out a string of stabbings across New York City, killing two people and critically wounding a third, had been arrested eight times previously.
The 51-year-old suspect, who is in police custody but remains unnamed by authorities. He has several charges in his past, dating back to 2003, across multiple states. He has at least eight in the New York City area, officials said, with the most recent being an October grand larceny charge, where he pleaded guilty and was released.
“There’s some real questions that we need to look at on why he was on the street, and he has some severe mental health issues that should have been examined, and that’s what we’re looking to spot in the investigation,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
The unprovoked attacks took place on Monday morning within two-and-half hours of each other at various locations around Manhattan. The suspect reportedly did not utter a word to any of his three victims.
The first stabbing, on West 19th Street, killed a 26-year-old construction worker who was standing by his work site near the Hudson River a little before 8:30 a.m. About two hours later and across the island of Manhattan, a 68-year-old man was attacked while fishing in the East River near East 30th Street.
Both men have since died, according to Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives.
The suspect then apparently traveled north near the riverfront. Around 10:55 a.m., a 36-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times near the United Nations headquarters on East 42nd Street, Kenny said. She is hospitalized in critical condition.
A passing cab driver saw the third attack and alerted police on nearby First Avenue and East 46th Street, officials said. An officer soon apprehended the suspect, who was found with blood on his clothes and the two kitchen knives he was carrying.
The names of the victims are also currently being withheld by police, as investigators work to understand what happened to provoke the rampage.
“Three New Yorkers. Unprovoked attacks that left us searching for answers on how something like this could happen,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference. He called the violence “a clear, clear example” of failures in the criminal justice system and elsewhere.
The suspect, who was homeless, was arrested most recently on a larceny charge in October, where he allegedly took a $1,500 bowl from a Tribeca shop. Court records show he pleaded not guilty and was released on bail with non-monetary conditions, according to the New York Post.
The suspect is a resident of a men’s shelter and also subject to two recent mental health reports, according to the Post. He has five burglary arrests dating to December 2023, along with a petit larceny charge.
He was also accused of assaulting a corrections officer in May. The Post stated that the suspect had arrests in New Jersey, Ohio and Florida dating back to 2003.