By Rocco Parascandola, Thomas Tracy and Larry McShane
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A knife-wielding subway stabber killed two people and wounded two more in a bloody 14-hour subterranean spree, attacking his victims along the A train line in Manhattan and Queens, police said Saturday.
NYPD detectives believe the four violent attacks were all linked as the hunt for the fugitive attacker continued, according to sources.
Police patrol the A line subway train bound to Inwood, after NYPD deployed an additional 500 officers into the subway system following deadly attacks, Saturday Feb. 13, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
The first and last incidents both occurred at the 181st Street station in Washington Heights. The two fatal attacks in between took place in Far Rockaway, Queens and Inwood, Manhattan.
Neither of the murder victims was identified Saturday as police tracked down family members for notification. Cops said the assailant was possibly a homeless person preying on homeless victims.
The first fatality, a 40-year-old man, was found dead inside a blood-spattered A train idling at the Mott Ave. station in Far Rockaway at 11:19 p.m. Friday. He had been stabbed numerous times in the neck and chest, and police arrived after a witness reported the grisly killing to the booth clerk, cops said.
The second fatality, a 44-year-old woman, was found about two hours later beneath the seats of another A train at the W. 207th Street station in Inwood. She was also stabbed several times across her body, and died about an hour later Saturday at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, cops said.
The rampage started around 11:30 a.m. Friday, with the crazed killer striking a 67-year-old man sitting on his walker on the subway platform at the 181st Street station.
“I’m going to kill you,” announced the suspect before stabbing the man with a knife in the right knee and buttocks, sources said.
The final attack came when the suspect stabbed a homeless man sleeping on the stairs at the same station around 1:30 a.m. Cops said the victim was stabbed four times in the back, just below his neck, but was expected to survive.
“The recent horrifying attacks in the subway system are outrageous and unacceptable,” said a joint Saturday statement from NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg and TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano. “Every customer, and each of our brave, heroic transit workers, deserve a safe and secure transit system.”
The pair called for an immediate increase of police to the sprawling mass transit system after the deadly attacks, the latest in a rash of violent incidents plaguing city subways in recent weeks.
On Thursday night, construction worker Gino Delacruz-Rodriguez was stabbed in the stomach during an unprovoked attack as he and his girlfriend waited for a train at the Christopher Street station in the West Village. Delacruz-Rodriguez was escorting his girlfriend, Julia Calel, home.
“It just happened out of nowhere,” Calel told The Daily News on Friday. “The guy did nothing, said nothing,” before he stabbed the victim, she said.
Hours earlier, a 72-year-old man waiting for a No. 7 train at the Fifth Avenue/Bryant Park station was pushed to the ground by a stranger around 9:30 a.m., cops said.
On Tuesday, an unidentified woman shoved Rosa Elizabeth Galeas-Forencio onto the tracks at the E. 174th Street station in the Bronx. A fellow rider on the platform helped the 54-year-old housekeeper to safety as a train was nearing the station.
On Feb. 2, Rafael Wilson was thrown onto the tracks by a mentally ill man inside the Fulton Street station in downtown Manhattan.
And on Jan. 16, Malik Jackson, who was homeless, shoved a 43-year-old stranger onto Harlem tracks. When a good Samaritan jumped down to help, Jackson fought him and wound up fatally electrocuted by the third rail.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea addressed the frightening violence in a NY1 interview Wednesday, vowing to “do everything in our power to make sure it remains an extremely safe transit system.”
“We’ll make sure we have the proper balance of officers deployed appropriately … to the right spots to keep New Yorkers safe,” he said.
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