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Man Is Accused of Killing 2 in Random Stabbings in Manhattan
The stabbings, which also left a third person critically injured, occurred across a broad swath of the borough over several hours on Monday morning.
A 51-year-old man killed two people and critically wounded a third in a series of random stabbings in Manhattan early Monday, officials said.
The man, whom the police did not immediately identify, was arrested shortly after the third attack based on a tip from a cabdriver, officials said. The driver saw the stabbing and pointed the assailant out to a police officer.
When the man was taken into custody, he had two knives that were covered with blood and his clothes were also spattered with blood, officials said. The man, who the police said appeared to be homeless, had been arrested 20 times in the past, most recently on a grand larceny charge in October.
Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at a news conference where he was joined by police leaders, said officials were still reviewing the man’s record but that there were “serious questions on why he was on the street.” The mayor also said the man had “serious mental health issues.”
“Today, we have three innocent New Yorkers who were victims of a terrible, terrible assault,” Mr. Adams said. The stabbings, he added, were “a clear example of a criminal justice system and a mental health system that continues to fail New Yorkers.”
The stabbing spree began shortly before 8:30 a.m. on West 19th Street near Eighth Avenue, where a knife-wielding assailant, without warning, stabbed a 36-year-old construction worker in the abdomen outside the job site where he was employed, Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at the news conference.
The construction worker was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Chief Kenny said.
About two hours later, the attacker struck again, this time on East 30th Street near Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, repeatedly stabbing a 68-year-old man who was fishing in the East River at the time, Chief Kenny said. That victim was also pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
The third attack occurred about a half-hour later, when a 36-year-old woman was stabbed several times at 42nd Street and First Avenue, near the United Nations, Chief Kenny said. She was taken to NewYork Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition.
The attacker was arrested several blocks away, after the taxi driver who had seen what he thought was a robbery alerted the police officer, Chief Kenny said.
Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk. More about Ed Shanahan
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