Three dead in unprovoked stabbing in Manhattan

An unstable man set out unprovoked Knife attack in Manhattan Three people were killed in a bloody attack on Monday morning, police said.

The suspect, identified by police as Ramon Rivera, 51-year-old resident of Bellevue Men’s Shelter First Ave., police sources told the Daily News. He said there was an unwitting attacker on nearby E. 30th St. who randomly selected his targets. Rivera was taken into custody after the third stabbing, police said.

Rivera confessed to the horrific massacre, which unfolded in less than three hours, sources told The News.

Mayor Adams said at a press conference at the 17th Precinct police station that he believes this stunning attack was the result of a failure in the criminal justice and mental health systems. Rivera had previously been arrested eight times in New York City, police sources told The News; Among these, there is still an ongoing lawsuit.

“Today, there are three innocent New Yorkers going about their lives, victims of horrific, horrific attacks,” Adams said, adding that the brutal attacks “have left us searching for answers as to how something like this could happen.”

“This is a classic, classic example of the criminal justice system, the mental health system, that continues to fail New Yorkers,” he added.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the attacks were random.

“As of right now, these attacks appear to be unprovoked,” Kenny said. “He walked up to them and attacked them with knives.”

Police say the first victim, construction worker Angel Lata Landi, was found dead on Tenth Ave. in Chelsea. He said he was stabbed around 8:20 a.m. on W. 19th St. near St. Louis. Police said the suspect walked up to the construction worker and began stabbing him before running away.

“He was standing in front of a construction site where he was working when he was stabbed in the stomach without any warning,” said Kenny.

After the stabber escaped, officers began tracking the attacker, who was described as a light-skinned, bearded man wearing a gray shirt and dark ski hat.

Paramedics took Lata Landi to the hospital Bellevue Hospital, That’s where he died at 8:30 a.m., police said.

A woman who lived across the street was in the garden when she heard a commotion followed by shouting.

“It was just a scream, ‘Call 911!’ Then this caught my attention,” the woman, who gave her name as Barbara, told The News.

The victim was motionless as he lay on the street covered with a blanket, his tan construction boots visible, he said.

“(Paramedics) ran from the ambulance. “They were checking his heartbeat,” he said. “Then they picked him up and put him in the ambulance.”

The second victim, a 68-year-old man whose name was not immediately released, was stabbed at 10.27am while fishing near the Water Club on the East River Promenade. E. 30th St. and FDR Drive in Kips Bay, said the policeman. Paramedics took him to Bellevue Hospital, but doctors were unable to save him.

The victim was stabbed “multiple times in the body,” Kenny said.

Less than a half hour later, at 10:55 a.m., a 36-year-old woman, whose name was not immediately released, walked into E. 42nd St. in Murray Hill. and stabbed at First Ave.

According to police, a passing taxi driver saw the attack, mistook it for a robbery and flagged down a nearby police officer.

E. 44th St. near the United Nations. and NYPD Officer Robert Garvey, assigned to First Ave., E. 46th St. and caught up with Rivera at First Ave. and took him into custody. Rivera was arrested soon after and charges were pending.

The quick actions of the taxi driver and Garvey “saved the lives of other New Yorkers,” Adams said.

“I just heard a commotion, went outside and heard what people were saying and reacting,” Garvey said at the press conference.

The victim of the stabbing was taken to New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Hospital in critical condition, but died hours later.

E. 42nd Street and First Street. A trail of blood was visible on it, turning the corner west onto E. 42nd Street. About a quarter of the way down the block the road ended in a massive bloodbath. A blue winter coat and an orange-blue hat lay on the ground nearby.

Two bloody carving knives were recovered from the suspect, whose clothes were also stained with blood, Kenny said.

“There’s a real question as to why he was on the street,” Rivera’s Adams said. “He has serious mental health problems”

Rivera was arrested and charged with grand theft for stealing an acrylic bowl worth $1,495 from the Jonathan Adler store in Soho on Oct. 17, sources said.

The Deputy District Attorney requested bail, but Rivera was released without bail and was ultimately charged with petit larceny and possession of stolen property.

Two months earlier, on Aug. 5, Rivera was sentenced to 364 days in prison for three burglaries that occurred in Manhattan in December and January, sources said.

In May, Rivera was arrested for assaulting a police officer in Bellevue’s psychiatric ward. He pleaded guilty to attempted assault the same day and was sentenced to 90 days in prison on September 4.

Rivera was also arrested for petty theft in the Bronx in December 2023, sources said.

Police responded to two incidents in 2023 where the suspect was emotionally disturbed.

According to sources, Rivera was found lying on a curb near Flushing, Queens, in November, gesturing unsteadily and saying his arm hurt. The following month, he called 911 to report that he was suicidal and wanted to kill someone. Paramedics took him to Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn.

Rivera also has several out-of-state arrests.

He was arrested in January in Union City, N.J., on charges of being a fugitive from justice; He was arrested twice for mischief in Hoboken that same month, sources said.

He was charged with assault in Columbus, Ohio, in 2018 and in Cleveland in 2017.

Rivera was arrested for a probation violation in Florida in 2010 and was arrested twice more in 2009, once for driving under the influence. According to sources, Rivera was arrested in 2006 on a prostitution-related charge and in 2003 in Florida for battery.

A neighbor who lived on the block where the first murder occurred was shocked to hear that the victim was the friendly construction worker he had seen at the site for the past two weeks.

“Is he dead? The neighbor, who gave his name as Orlando, began to cry.

“He was a good man,” Orlando, 55, said. “He was a very quiet man.”

“He was respectful. “He was going to say good morning,” he added. “He looked like a guy who would go to church. He’s a very clean guy.”

Orlando, who has lived on the block for more than 20 years, said the fatal stabbing was a disturbing incident that reminded him of times past.

“I haven’t heard anything like this in a long time,” he said.

with Roni Jacobson