New York police have arrested a man in connection with a series of stabbings in the subway that killed two people and injured two, the police department said Sunday.
Police, Rigoberto Lopez, 21, are facing two charges of second-degree murder, two counts of attempted second-degree murder and a single charge of first-degree murder. Officials said the day before Lopez was arrested, officers were called to Fort Washington subway station around 11:20 a.m. Friday and found a 67-year-old man with stab wounds.
Officers found a man dead at a station in Far Rockaway with stab wounds to the face and neck after another call around 11:30 p.m. Friday. A few hours later, a Metropolitan Transportation employee finds a woman stuck in a train.
The 44-year-old woman died in a hospital.
Another 43-year-old man was found with stab wounds at Fort Washington station around the same time, police said. He told police he was attacked by an unknown man.
All the people who were attacked were apparently homeless, police said.
Eric Adams, the borough of Brooklyn, said in a statement that the city’s approach to subway safety ‘failed’, noting a resurgence of other violent crimes on public transport trains.
“The perpetrators of this violence often struggle with some form of severe mental illness, and their targets are often among the most vulnerable New Yorkers, including our homeless neighbors who seek the subway system as a refuge during the winter months,” he said. . said in a statement.
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Saturday that another 500 officers would be deployed throughout the city to patrol subway stations.
Neither the police nor the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office were immediately available to respond to requests for more information. It was unclear whether Lopez was still holding a lawyer.
