A lonely madman is believed to have stabbed two homeless people fatally and cut two others during a 14-hour spree along the A train line, police said on Saturday when announcing a huge hunt for the bloodthirsty suspect.
The two murders took place at opposite ends of the line on Friday to Saturday – one at Inwood in Manhattan, the far north, and the other at the southernmost point on the line, at Rockaways in Queens – with both victims found lying in puddles. blood on or under their subway seats.
Two surviving victims are helping the police to identify their attacker, preliminarily described by the officers as a lighter-skinned man, only five feet tall and wearing a face mask.
“Three of these incidents appear to be connected and the Detective Office is investigating the possibility that all four may have been committed by an individual,” traffic chief Kathleen O’Reilly told reporters at a press conference at 2 pm at headquarters NYPD in Manhattan.
“We will work tirelessly to bring the individual or individuals to justice,” she said.
Officials released the following chronology:
– At 11:30 am on Friday, a 67-year-old man was stabbed by a random attacker while pushing his walker along the south platform at A 181st Street train station in Washington Heights.
“I will kill you!” he told police that his attacker shouted, according to sources. He was stabbed in the right knee and in the left buttocks; although he required surgery, he is expected to survive the attack.
This attack is believed to be related to three subsequent attacks.
– Twelve hours later, at 11:29 pm on Friday, a man was found stabbed to death, but still lying in his seat on an A train at Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway.
He suffered knife wounds to his neck and torso and was pronounced dead at the scene.
-A few hours later, at 1:15 am on Saturday, a 44-year-old woman was found dead, again in a pool of blood, under her seat on the subway inside an A train at 207th Street station in Inwood.
She was stabbed all over the body.
– Shortly thereafter, at 1:28 am on Saturday, a 43-year-old man was randomly stabbed while sleeping on a stairway from train station A on West 181st Street.
He staggered to a nearby bank on W. 181st Street, but collapsed before entering the hall, police said.
The victim is being treated at a local hospital for four back punctures and is in stable condition.
The 44-year-old woman was taken to New York Presbyterian-Allen Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to authorities.
It is the worst wave of stabbing on the subway since June 2006, when a homeless serial killer injured four people in a 13-hour commotion on trains in Harlem and Rockefeller Center. All his victims survived.
And it is the worst mass violence against the homeless since 2019, when four homeless men were beaten to death in their sleep one night in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
“When that happened in October 2019, we said that unless the city and state work together” to create permanent and supported housing, “more violence will come,” said Joseph Loonam, coordinator of the Vocal-NY housing campaign.
“And we are heartbroken, but we are not surprised to hear that it happened again.”
Passengers shaken at Train A’s Far Rockaway Mott Avenue station called for more stringent security measures on Saturday, suggesting more patrols and even metal detectors.
“It’s scary. It’s really scary. I never felt safe on the subway, but I always knew I needed to go,” said Marissa Augustus, 17.
“I’m scared for my life,” she added. “Every time I get on the train, it is empty,” said Revern Sharp, 45.
“There is no police, so it gives them [the criminals] the jurisdiction for [do whatever] they want to do it on the train. Smoke, drink, do whatever is on the train, because they know that there is no police coming …
Maurice Moore, 33, said the subway is simply not safe at night anymore.
“The police should be here more often. When I get home late, there are no police here, ”he said. “Between 8 am and 5 pm you see them, but you don’t see them after that.”
The pandemic meant fewer people – and police – at the station, passengers said.
“People are skipping the turnstile, nobody pays more. If you have a MetroCard, you stupid … You need more policemen on the subway. “
Those who live and work near the 181A train stop said the homelessness problem also grew during the pandemic – and that is also frightening.
“There are a lot of homeless people sleeping down there, around 40, 20. It’s scaring the children, the women. The police don’t bother them, ”said Abdul Mohammed, who works at Fort Washington Candy and Grocery at 181st St.
“It’s scary to go down there,” he continued. “People sleeping, sleeping on the subway. I am afraid of these people. “
Blasio’s mayor recently dismissed the public concerns of New York commissioner Dermot Shea over a recent wave of attacks on the subway, which included a hook placed on the tracks.
“We had an incredible and total break in 2020. Our entire lives have been turned upside down, a global pandemic, a perfect storm – and we are in the process of overcoming that,” said de Blasio earlier this month as he tried to explain a doubling of murders in the subway.
The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday and Saturday’s A train stab attacks.
Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York Police sergeant and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, blamed City Hall for the increase, not New York’s best.
“Another failure of the mayor and those charged with helping the homeless,” he said. “The transit system is not a homeless shelter and the role of the police department in helping has been reduced to say the least.”