The ‘A-train Ripper’ is in custody, several sources of law enforcement told The Post on Saturday night.
The sparrow-mad man was wanted in a gruesome subway rush that left two homeless people dead and two others cut along the A-train track and trapped in Upper Manhattan, sources said.
His shoes were still splashing with the blood of his victims when he was arrested – and he was still in possession of the bloody knife, one source added.
The yet-to-be-named suspect was in custody at the 34th District in Washington Heights, sources said.
The bloodshed sparked a cry for safer metros, and Dermot Shea, NYPD commissioner, responded and announced that an increase of 500 police officers for the department’s Transit Bureau would be deployed in the city immediately.
Authorities began Friday morning, not far from where the alleged knife was stolen, authorities said.
At 11:30 a.m., a 67-year-old man was stabbed with a knife as he pushed his walker along the southern platform at the A train’s 181st Street station in Washington Heights.
“I’m going to kill you!” according to police, his attacker shouted according to sources. He was stabbed in the right knee and left buttock; while he had to undergo surgery, he is expected to survive the attack.
It is believed that the attack was linked to three subsequent attacks.
Twelve hours later, at 11:29 p.m. Friday, a man was found stabbed to death but still sank in his seat on an A train at Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway.
He sustained knife wounds to his neck and torso and was pronounced dead at the scene.
About two hours later, at 1:15 a.m. Saturday, a 44-year-old woman was found shot dead, again in a pool of blood, under her subway seat in an A-train at 207 Street Station in Inwood.
She was stabbed through her body.
Then, on Saturday at 1:28 a.m., a 43-year-old man was randomly stabbed while sleeping in a stairwell at the A train station in West 181 Street.
He stumbled to a nearby shore in West 181 Street but collapsed before entering the foyer, police said.
The victim is being treated in a hospital for four lacerations to his back and is in a stable condition.
The 44-year-old woman was taken to New York Presbyterian-Allen Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, authorities said.
This is the worst sample with the subway since June 2006, when a homeless serial cutter injured four people during a 13-hour rampage on trains in Harlem and Rockefeller Center. His victims all survived.
And this is the worst massage violence against homeless people since 2019, when four homeless men were beaten to death one night in their Chinatown in Manhattan.
Mayor de Blasio has downplayed NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea’s public concerns about a recent spate of metro attacks, including a sculpture printed on the tracks.
Additional reporting by Kathianne Boniello
