A person of interest has been taken into custody over a series of random stabbing attacks in New York City, the NYPD confirmed to The Daily Beast Wednesday.
It comes after police on Wednesday issued a public plea for help to locate a suspect who had stabbed multiple people over several days in two precincts of Queens with an apparent hunting knife.
“These are senseless, unprovoked attacks,” New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban said earlier Wednesday at a press conference, just hours before the development.
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“We have an unidentified individual who is walking around the street randomly stabbing people with a hunting knife,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell added at the briefing.
“There is no connection to the individuals and it seems to be unprovoked.”
Investigators believe the same suspect is responsible for at least five random stabbing attacks on four males and one female, three of which took place Wednesday morning in Springfield Gardens. A person was also stabbed on Tuesday.
The attacks seemingly started on Jan. 8, when a 64-year-old man was stabbed in the lower back while walking by himself, police said, adding they are investigating another stabbing on a subway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to see if it links to the same suspect.
The knife-wielding assailant in some cases tried to make statements to victims but they couldn’t understand what he was saying, cops said.
The injured female is 34, while the male victims range in age from 36 to 74. The injuries are all non-life-threatening and all the victims are expected to survive.
Earlier Wednesday, Caban called for the public to help identify the male suspect in his twenties, describing him as having a slim build. He can be seen in CCTV footage wearing a green jacket with a black hoodie, black pants, black Adidas sneakers with white stripes and a grey winter mask. He also was spotted wearing a surgical mask and a lanyard at some times throughout the nine-day stabbing spree.
Just hours later, the NYPD confirmed a person of interest had been taken into custody, but said no charges had yet been filed. The person was not identified and the investigation remained open, police added.
