Jan. 18 (UPI) — A man accused of carrying out a series of violent attacks in New York City was charged with multiple counts of attempted murder, mayor Eric Adams announced at a news conference Thursday.
Jermain Rigueur was arrested Wednesday and faces additional charges, including felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon charges.
The former greeter at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., is accused of stabbing at least five people during a nine-day period.
A stabbing Wednesday morning near the Myrtle Ave.-Broadway subway stop for the J, M and Z trains occurred only hours before a 74-year-old man and 41-year-old man were stabbed in Queens. Detectives are still working to link Rigueur to the Queens attacks, the New York Post reported, citing police sources.
“When you have a chilling incident, when a person chooses to randomly assault or stab individuals, not only on our streets but also on the subway system, it just sends the wrong message to New Yorkers,” Adams said during the news conference, flanked by senior NYPD officers.
A 61-year-old grandfather was stabbed near a Queens laundromat on the evening of Jan. 8, while a 34-year-old woman was stabbed just after midnight on Tuesday while walking home from her job at Laguardia Airport.
Rigueur was arrested outside his home in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood of southeastern Queens. At the time, he was wearing similar clothes and shoes to those of the suspect in several of the attacks, as well as a distinct lanyard, police confirmed Thursday.
The 27-year-old had no prior arrests and was captured after an extensive manhunt by NYPD officers that included thousands of interviews, according to Adams, and “good old-fashioned police work.”
“The real credit goes out to the men and women knocking on doors, probably 1,000 interviews and interactions with New Yorkers, tip hotlines from New Yorkers who saw the photos that went out to assist us,” Adams said Thursday.
“Ultimately, it came down to basic detective work — chasing down leads, knocking on doors. It was about walking through neighborhoods and talking to people, interviewing witnesses, and canvassing video.”
