4 stabbed, 2 fatally, on separate trains across NYC by possible spree killer

[Sugar Cookie]

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.

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 rush 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.

4 stabbed, 2 fatally, on separate trains across NYC by possible spree killer, police say

 

[Sejanus]

NYC for that predator in all of us.

Form hunting parties.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The “A-train Ripper” is in custody, multiple law enforcement sources told The Post on Saturday night.

The knife-wielding madman was wanted in a gruesome subway spree that left two homeless people dead and two others slashed along the A train line, and was nabbed in Upper Manhattan, the sources said.

His shoes were still splattered with his victims’ blood when he was taken into custody — and he was still in possession of the bloody knife, one source added.

The yet-named suspect was in custody at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights, the sources said.

The bloodshed sparked an outcry for safer subways, and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea responded, announcing a “surge” of 500 additional cops for the department’s Transit Bureau to be deployed across the city immediately.

The spree began Friday morning, not far from where the alleged stabber was caught, authorities said.

4 stabbings on same subway line possibly linked; NYPD increasing patrols

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[Sevens My Charm]

His shoes were still splattered with his victims’ blood when he was taken into custody — and he was still in possession of the bloody knife, one source added.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The “A-Train Ripper” was identified Sunday as a 21-year-old homeless man who has been previously arrested at least four times — including for allegedly assaulting a cop and his own father.

Rigoberto Lopez — who has been hospitalized at least twice for mental issues — allegedly confessed to NYPD cops that he launched the violent weekend subway spree that left a man and woman dead and two men wounded, authorities said.

“I’m not going to get into motive, but what I can tell you is they were all unprovoked attacks,’’ NYPD Chief Brian McGee, commanding officer of Manhattan North detectives, told reporters at a briefing Sunday. “The victims had nothing, didn’t initiate anything.”

Lopez — who lives in a shelter in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn — had previously “been removed to the hospital two times for, I’ll say, mental illness,” McGee said.

The suspect was nabbed Saturday while still covered in blood and with the alleged murder weapon, according to law-enforcement sources.

He later confessed to the bloody spate of crimes along the A line, which occurred over a span of about 15 hours Friday and Saturday, the NYPD said.

Lopez was charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder Sunday.

He has had at least four prior arrests, including for “possession of a controlled substance, criminal contempt and assault,” according to McGee.

‘A-Train Ripper’ identified as Rigoberto Lopez, homeless man from Brooklyn

The “A-Train Ripper” was identified Sunday as a 21-year-old homeless man who has been previously arrested at least four times — including for allegedly assaulting a cop and his own father. Rigobert…

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The woman killed by “the A-train ripper” was an immigrant from Jamaica who was tragically driven to the streets by mental illness, her father told The Post.

The victim, identified by police sources and kin as 44-year-old Claudine Roberts, had been “a nice girl growing up” before mental illness left her homeless — and in harm’s way, said her dad, Winston Roberts, 73.

“It breaks my heart,” the father said from his Brooklyn home.

Claudine — who had just gotten out of Bellevue Hospital amid her ongoing mental issues about a week ago — was riding the train when she was killed by a crazed homeless man early Saturday in a random slashing spree that also left an apparently homeless male straphanger dead and two more riders wounded, cops and her dad said.

Woman killed by ‘A-Train Ripper’ was struggling Jamaican immigrant, dad says

The woman killed by “the A-train ripper” was an immigrant from Jamaica who was tragically driven to the streets by mental illness, her father told The Post. The victim, identified by po…

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