3 Killed in NYC Stabbing Rampage

UPDATE Nov 19, 2024 12:00 AM CST

The third and final victim in an apparently random stabbing spree in Manhattan Monday morning has died of her injuries. The 36-year-old woman was taken to a hospital in critical condition, but died later Monday, the AP reports. A taxi driver witnessed that attack, which took place near UN headquarters, and alerted police, who arrested the suspect.

Nov 18, 2024 1:43 PM CST

A man carried out a string of stabbings across a swath of Manhattan on Monday morning, killing two people and critically wounding a third without uttering a word to his victims, officials said. The 51-year-old suspect was in police custody after being found with blood on his clothes and the two kitchen knives he was carrying, authorities said. The suspect's and victims' names weren't immediately released. "Three New Yorkers. Unprovoked attacks that left us searching for answers on how something like this could happen," Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference. He called the violence "a clear, clear example" of failures in the criminal justice system and elsewhere, the AP reports.

The suspect, apparently homeless, had been sentenced in a criminal case a few months ago, the mayor said, without giving further details. The attacks happened within 2 1/2 hours, said Joseph Kenny, police chief of detectives. The first, on West 19th Street, killed a construction worker who was standing by his work site near the Hudson River a little before 8:30am. On the other side of Manhattan about two hours later, a man was attacked while fishing in the East River near East 30th Street. Both men died, Kenny said.

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The suspect then apparently traveled north near the riverfront. Around 10:55am, a woman was stabbed multiple times near the United Nations headquarters on East 42nd Street, Kenny said. She is hospitalized in critical condition. A passing cab driver saw the third attack and alerted a police officer, officials said. Kenny said the attacker didn't speak to his victims or take any property from them, NBC New York reports. Adams said the man has "severe mental health issues" and there are "serious questions on why he was on the street."

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