NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – A man was arrested and charged with murder Sunday after a series of subway stabbings on the A line over a 14-hour period between Friday and Saturday left two people dead and two more wounded, police said.
Rigoberto Lopez, a 21-year-old man who lives at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, was charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts second-degree murder in the two deaths. He was also charged with two counts of attempted murder.
Deputy Chief Brian McGee said Sunday that Lopez has a criminal history that includes an arrest for an assault on a police officer. He has also been hospitalized for mental illness in the past.
McGee said Lopez was charged in connection to all four attacks. He was taken into custody without incident at Audubon Avenue and W. 186th Street around 6:15 p.m. Saturday after a sergeant and police officer on patrol recognized his bloodied clothing—the same clothes he allegedly wore during the stabbing spree.
Lopez also had a knife on him at the time he was taken into custody, according to police.
“Forensics will be used to determine if this knife was used in the commission of either of these incidents,” McGee said.
The attacks were all unprovoked and all of the victims were homeless, according to police.
“I’m not going to get into motive, but what I can tell you is they were all unprovoked attacks. The victims didn’t initiate anything,” McGee said.
Before Lopez was taken into custody, the NYPD announced Saturday that it was sending a surge of 500 officers into the subway system to boost security and make sure riders felt safe. It's unclear if those officers will stay in the system after the suspect's arrest.
“We will immediately commence a surge of officers to patrol both above and below ground,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a press conference Saturday.
“This surge will result in an additional 500 officers, which is a significant increase to the staffing of our transit bureau,” Shea said. “And they will be deployed immediately throughout New York City.”
On Sunday, MTA officials requested an additional 1,000 NYPD officers for the transit system.
A homeless man and a woman were found stabbed to death aboard two different A line trains overnight Friday, police said. Two other homeless men were injured in separate incidents in upper Manhattan, one Friday morning and the other early Saturday morning.
The first fatal stabbing victim, a 40-year-old man, was found on a seat of an idling train at the Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway, Queens, around 11:20 p.m.
Police said the man had been stabbed multiple times in his neck and torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two hours later, around 1:20 a.m., a 44-year-old woman was found lying under the seat of a train on the opposite end of the line at the W. 207th Street station in Inwood, Manhattan.
The woman had been stabbed multiple times throughout her body, according to police. She was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said a 67-year-old man was also stabbed by a man around 11:20 a.m. Friday at the 181st Street A line station in Washington Heights.
A 43-year-old man was also stabbed at the 181st Street station around 1:28 a.m. Saturday, police said.
The 67-year-old man and 43-year-old man were hospitalized and are expected to survive.
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