NEW YORK — The knife-wielding attacker suspected of stabbing three sleeping homeless men in Manhattan, killing one, was arrested Wednesday morning after a passer-by spotted him at a Harlem bus stop, a police source said.
Trevon Murphy, 40, who is homeless himself, started to walk away when police approached — but when they told him to stop he complied and was handcuffed.
A knife was found on Murphy when he was arrested but it was not immediately clear if it was the same knife that was used in the attacks, police sources said.
He was wearing the same sneakers and “Innocence Project” sweatshirt the suspect was seen wearing during the attacks.
“A good Samaritan spotted him sitting at a bus stop by St. Nicholas Park and same shirt and distinctive neon sneakers,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said during a noon news conference. “That good Samaritan then turned to the police and the NYPD did its job both safely and securely without incident.”
Sewell said that Murphy was convicted of a narcotics charge in Tennessee and violated his parole by fleeing the state. Tennessee authorities have an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
“This suspect should not have been on our streets,” Sewell said, noting the outstanding warrant and an arrest in Queens where he punched a roommate at the shelter he was staying at. “This man was preying on the vulnerable and we’re thankful on the combined efforts to bring him to safety.”
Murphy was expected to be charged in all three attacks, cops said.
“Oh my God, thank you Jesus,” said Igdalia Torres, the sister of one of the hospitalized surviving victims, Abimael Rolon, beginning to cry when told a suspect was in custody. “I’m so happy. I needed that news today.”
Murphy’s last known address, police sources said, was a Queens hotel near LaGuardia Airport being used to house the homeless.
On April 10, he was arrested inside the hotel after he allegedly punched his roommate in the face while the victim slept — a crime hauntingly similar to the three he’s currently accused of.
He was charged with misdemeanor assault and released without bail at his arraignment, according to court documents.
The NYPD on Tuesday said it had stepped up efforts to find the suspect — and to warn homeless people they’d be safer sleeping in shelters.
The stabbing spree started July 5 when a 34-year-old man sleeping on a park bench at West and Christopher streets in the West Village “awoke to pain in his stomach,” Chief of Detectives James Essig said Tuesday.
Video shows the attacker taking the victim’s Citi Bike and driving it around the block a few times, Essig said.
The suspect — wearing an Innocence Project sweatshirt and neon sneakers and carrying a gray backpack — then returned to the scene and stabbed the slumbering man, though the attack was not caught on video.
The victim’s backpack was taken and later found nearby but police did not find the bike.
The injured man stumbled across the street, where a passer-by called 911. He was rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.
The stabber struck next about 10 p.m. Friday, when he sat on a park bench and watched for a half-hour as his next victim slept 30 feet away by a building at Madison Avenue and E. 49th Street.
“The perpetrator then puts on a COVID mask, walks over and stabs our victim one time and walks off,” Essig said.
The 59-year-old victim, Essig said, tried to treat the wound himself and didn’t notify police until two days later. He’s now recovering at Weill Cornell Medical Center but too wounded to speak, a relative exclusively told the Daily news.
A third man 28, was knifed in the stomach about 3:30 a.m. Monday as he slept on a basketball court at the Stanley Isaacs Playground at 95th Street and the FDR Drive in Yorkville. A witness told police the suspect, again clad in the Innocence Project sweatshirt, was armed with a large kitchen knife.
“He states he felt a punch in the side,” Essig said. “He gives chase to the perpetrator but is unable to purse due to his wounds.”
The attacks were reminiscent of a cold-blooded murder spree this past March by a suspect arrested for targeting homeless victims in Washington, D.C., and New York. Suspect Gerald Brevard III killed one homeless man and wounded two others in the nation’s capital before heading to New York, where he was accused of executing one sleeping man and wounding another.
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