A crazed suspect wielding two knives allegedly went on a stabbing rampage in New York City on Monday and killed three people, one woman and two men.
The suspect is Ramon Rivera, 51, a mentally ill homeless man who has reportedly been arrested eight times before in the city. His mug shot shows him with light skin and a black, bushy unkempt beard with gray streaks and matching hair.
He has since been arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
The deadly random attack was “unprovoked,” Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday at a news briefing on the incident.
“Today, we have three innocent New Yorkers, just going about their lives, who were the victim of a terrible, terrible assault,” Adams said. “It is a clear, clear example of the criminal justice system, mental health system that continues to fail New Yorkers.”
The stabbing spree began around 8:20 a.m. and lasted several hours, spanning more than 20 blocks from Chelsea to the East River.
A bearded man matching Rivera’s description can be seen on surveillance footage putting a large kitchen knife in his sweatshirt pocket in Chelsea about 20 minutes before he attacked his first victim, according to police.
He first walked up to a 36-year-old construction worker in Chelsea and stabbed him in the stomach, police said. Later, he stabbed a 68-year-old man who was fishing in the East River, and finally, he stabbed a 36-year-old woman multiple times near the United Nations building. All three were taken to the hospital but later died from their injuries.
Large splashes of blood were visible on the ground at one of the crime scenes as police roped it off.
The violence caused panic among bystanders.
A woman pushing a small child in a stroller witnessed the construction worker getting stabbed and screamed and alerted a doorman, he said.
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Eventually, a cab driver who witnessed the woman getting knifed followed the stabber and alerted a police officer, Robert Garvey, who detained the suspect.
“If Officer Garvey was not there, these random acts of violence, this person conceivably would have continued those random acts of violence,” Adams said. “So, he saved the lives of fellow New Yorkers.”
The suspect was caught with two large, bloodied kitchen knives in his possession, police said.
Rivera was reportedly released from Rikers Island just a month before the attacks, and the mayor said the system had failed.
“There’s some real questions that we need to look at on why he was on the street, and he has some severe mental health issues that should have been examined, and that’s what we’re looking to spot in the investigation,” Adams said.
Rivera’s rap sheet reportedly includes five burglary arrests over the last year, and another charge for assaulting a corrections officer in a psychiatric center. He was also charged with petty larceny for stealing a $1,500 acrylic bowl.
