A lone madman is suspected of stabbing two homeless people to death and killing two others during a 14-hour rush along the A-line, police said Saturday when they announced a massive hunt for the bloodthirsty suspect.
The two murders took place late Friday through Saturday across the line – one in Inwood, Manhattan, the northernmost point, and another in the southernmost point of the Rockaways in Queens – with both victims found in the pool of blood. is. or under their subway seats.
Two surviving victims help police identify their attacker, who is tentatively described by officials as a lighter man standing just five feet tall and wearing a face mask.
“Three of these incidents appear to be linked, and the Detective Bureau is investigating the possibility that all four could have been committed by one individual,” transit chief Kathleen O’Reilly told reporters at a 2 p.m. NYPD headquarters in lower Manhattan. .
“We will work tirelessly to bring the individual or individuals to justice,” she said.
Officials have released the following chronology:
At 11:30 a.m. Friday, a 67-year-old man was stabbed by a random attacker as he pushed his walker along the southern platform at the A train’s 181 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.
Two hours later, at 11:29 p.m. on Friday, a man was stabbed to death but still sank in his seat in 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.
Shortly afterwards, at 01:28 on Saturday, a 43-year-old man was stabbed at random when he was sleeping on a staircase in the A-train station in West 181 Street.
He stumbled to a nearby bank in W. 181 Street, but collapsed before entering the lobby, 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.
“When it happened in October of 2019, we then said that unless the city and the state work together” to create permanent, supported housing, “more violence will come,” said Joseph Loonam, housing campaign coordinator for Vocal-NY. said.
“And we are saddened, but not surprised to hear that it has happened again.”
Shaken commuters at the A train’s Far Rockaway Mott Avenue station on Saturday called for tighter security measures, indicating that increased patrols and even metal detectors have taken place.
“It’s scary. It’s really scary. I’ve never felt safe in the subway, but I always knew I had to take it,” said Marissa Augustus, 17.
“I’m scared for my life,” she added. “Every time I get on the train, it’s empty,” said Revern Sharp, 45.
‘There are no police, so it gives them [the criminals] the jurisdiction to [do whatever] they want to do on the train. Smoke, drink, do everything in the train, because they know no police are coming …
Maurice Moore, 33, said the subways are simply no longer safe at night.
“The police need to be here more often. “If I go home late, there are no police here,” he said. “Between 8 in the morning and five in the afternoon you see them, but after that you do not see them.”
The pandemic meant fewer people and policemen at the station, commuters said.
‘People jump the turnstile, nobody pays for it anymore. If you have a MetroCard, you’re stupid … You need more police in the subway. ‘
Those who live and work at the 181st A-stop said that the problem of homelessness also shot up during the pandemic – and it is also frightening.
‘Many homeless people sleep down there, like 40, 20. It scares the children, the women. The police do not bother them, ”said Abdul Mohammed, who was at the Fort Washington Candy and Grocery on 181st St.
“It’s scary to go down there,” he continued. ‘People sleep and drive on the subway. I’m scared of these people. ”
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.
“We have had an incredible and total disruption in 2020. Our whole life has been turned upside down, a global pandemic, a perfect storm – and we are overcoming it,” de Blasio said earlier this month as he tried to explain away has. a doubling in metro killings.
The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday and Saturday’s A-stab attacks.
Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and deputy professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, blamed City Hall for the boom, not the best in New York.
“Another failure by the mayor and those responsible for helping the homeless,” he said. “The transit system is not a shelter for the homeless, and the role of the police in providing assistance has been said to say the least.”