A maniac with a knife, wanted for stabbing a homeless man to death while he slept in public, has now been tied to two other stabbings in the last week, police say, including one on an Upper East Side playground.
Police say the cold-blooded attacker, seen in surveillance images riding a Citi Bike and wearing a sweatshirt for the Innocence Project— a group that works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted— preys on his victims while they’re lying down in public.
The killer first struck on just after 3:00 am on Tuesday, July 5th, when police say he snuck up on a 34-year-old man, believed to be homeless, lying down on the Hudson River Park walkway and knifed the victim in the stomach.
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The victim was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, but did not survive.
Three days after the vicious slaying downtown, police say the killer attacked another man lying on a bench in midtown— all with the same M.O.
The suspect approached the 59-year-old victim and plunged a blade into his belly last Friday, July 8th around 10:00 pm near the corner of Madison Avenue and East 49th Street, according to police.
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Investigators say the stabber would wait another two days to strike again— most recently early Monday morning on the Upper East Side.
Targeting a 28-year-old man lying down inside the Stanley Isaac Playground on First Avenue between East 95th and 96th Streets around 3:30 am, stabbing the man in the stomach.
The stabbers second and third victims survived their injuries, police say, and were taken to a hospital in stable condition.
If you recognize the suspect in the surveillance images or have any information that can help police, you’re asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477.
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Maybe the same guy who stabbed someone back in May at the F train 63rd Street stop on Third Avenue?