NBC New York’s Myles Miller and Melissa Russo report.
A hospital worker apprehended late Wednesday in connection with a string of unprovoked stabbings in Queens has been charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and is being eyed in a transit stabbing in another borough, the NYPD confirmed Thursday.
Jermain Rigueur also faces felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon charges in the spree that left at least five people stabbed within nine days, mainly in the Jamaica area of Queens. He said nothing as police escorted him out of a Queens precinct on Thursday as he was led to his arraignment.
Rigueur had no prior arrests and passed a background check for his employer, Woodhull Hospital. Police said there's no indication of mental difficulties either.
Hospital officials said Rigueur started working at Woodhull in mid-November as a greeter. He has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
Word of Rigueur's arrest came hours after cops released surveillance video and images of the suspect and pleaded for help getting him off the streets. The NYPD said Thursday a community member had video that helped them track Rigueur to a home in the area of attacks. They set up surveillance and arrested him when he returned, officials say. He was wearing the same distinctive lanyard he had been seen wearing in earlier surveillance.
He also had on the same clothing and sneakers and was carrying the same backpack, the NYPD said.
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Many of those who live in the neighborhood work at nearby JFK Airport, and get home from work at all hours of the night. They said they were afraid they would become the serial stabber’s next victim.
The NYPD made their public plea for assistance after at least three stabbing incidents in about 30 minutes Wednesday morning. First, a 74-year-old was stabbed in the back on 134th Avenue. Six minutes later, police responded to a 911 call of a 41-year-old man stabbed in the same precinct, this time on 161st Street.
Another incident was reported at Parsons Boulevard and Archer Avenue about a half-hour after that. All Wednesday's victims are expected to be OK, as are those involved in the earlier attacks on Jan. 8 and Jan. 16.
The first case in the pattern involved a 61-year-old man stabbed in the back as he walked alone on 137th Avenue, approaching 157th Street. Eight days elapsed between that and the next attack linked to the pattern.
That came Tuesday, when Rigueur allegedly attacked a woman was returning home from work on Guy Brewer Boulevard. The victim told News 4 she had just gotten off a Q111 bus and was just steps from home when she noticed a man cross the street and start walking behind her. Suddenly, he was directly behind her.
She felt a sharp puncture on the right side of her back. The man mumbled something but she was wearing AirPods and couldn't hear him, she said. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground and he ran off, slipping on the snow and ice. She heard helicopters searching for him later.
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The 41-year-old woman says she managed to walk the last bit of the way toward her house, where her husband called an ambulance. She had emergency surgery to ensure no organs were punctured in the attack. They weren't, she says, so she got some stitches and was able to return home.
Authorities have not speculated on a possible motive for the attacks, and the NYPD said Rigueur didn't offer one.
Police said he "appeared to be talking to himself...speaking gibberish" leading up to and during the attack on the woman. Minutes later, he was seen on surveillance video stabbing the window of a nearby bodega with a hunting knife.
Authorities have also been looking into whether Rigueur may have been involved in a Brooklyn subway stabbing Wednesday, not long after the spree in Queens. No charges have been filed at this time, but investigators said they were hopeful they could build a case with the district attorney around that attack as well as the others.
The victim in that incident, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela who arrived in the city just two months ago, told NBC New York that he felt every part of the attack, and that his attacker "stabbed me with all his force."
"I never imagined this would happen to me in the U.S.,” said Medina, who is desperate to find work to help his wife and daughter back home. He fears his recovery will set him back.
Information on a possible attorney for Rigueur wasn't immediately available.
