A homeless man has allegedly confessed to a series of random stabbings with kitchen knives that took place across New York City on Monday, killing three people.
A 51-year-old suspect is in police custody but remains unnamed by authorities. City officials told NBC New York the suspect is named Ramon Rivera. In custody, Rivera allegedly confessed to the killings, the New York Post reports, citing unnamed sources.
Rivera has a lengthy criminal record, according to records obtained by NBC New York, with eight arrests in New York City over the past year for seven felonies and a misdemeanor. He was released from prison on October 17 for time served on burglary and assault charges, per the outlet, and arrested then given bail for an alleged case of grand larceny that took place at a Manhattan store the day of his release.
Rivera was also reportedly arrested for assaulting a corrections officer inside New York City’s Bellevue Hospital psychiatric center in May, and arrested and indicted three times in January in Hudson County, New Jersey, for criminal mischief, theft, and burglary. In New Jersey, he was later release on pre-trial monitoring, and a bench warrant was reportedly issued for the man after he failed to return before authorities.
“There’s some real questions that we need to look at on why he was on the street, and he has some severe mental health issues that should have been examined, and that’s what we’re looking to spot in the investigation,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference after the attacks.
The unprovoked stabbings took place on Monday morning within two-and-half hours of each other at various locations around Manhattan. The suspect reportedly did not utter a word to any of his three victims.
The first, on West 19th Street, killed a 26-year-old construction worker who was standing by his work site near the Hudson River a little before 8:30 a.m. About two hours later and across the island of Manhattan, a 68-year-old man was attacked while fishing in the East River near East 30th Street.
Both men were killed, according to Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives.
The suspect then apparently traveled north near the riverfront. Around 10:55 a.m., a 36-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times near the United Nations headquarters on East 42nd Street, Kenny said.
She died Monday evening, sources told the Post. Victims of the attacks have not been named pending notification of their next of kin.
A passing cab driver saw the third attack and alerted police on nearby First Avenue and East 46th Street, officials said. An officer soon apprehended the suspect, who was found with blood on his clothes and two kitchen knives.
“Three New Yorkers. Unprovoked attacks that left us searching for answers on how something like this could happen,” Mayor Adams added at the news conference. He called the violence “a clear, clear example” of failures in the criminal justice system and elsewhere.
The suspect, who was homeless, was arrested most recently on a larceny charge in October, where he allegedly took a $1,500 bowl from a Tribeca shop. Court records show he pleaded not guilty and was released on bail with non-monetary conditions, according to the New York Post.
The suspect is a resident of a men’s shelter and also subject to two recent mental health reports, according to the Post. He has five burglary arrests dating to December 2023, along with a petit larceny charge.
The Post stated that the suspect had arrests in New Jersey, Ohio and Florida dating back to 2003.
