Hospital greeter nabbed in NYC stab spree charged with attempted murder
The suspect nabbed for a bloody nine-day stabbing spree through Queens is a 27-year-old hospital greeter now charged with attempted murder, cops said Thursday.
Jermain Rigueur is facing multiple counts of attempted murder, assault and weapons possession for allegedly randomly attacking five people, laughing in the face of one of them, cops said.
Police are still trying to connect the suspect to a stabbing on the J/M/Z platform at the Myrtle Ave.-Broadway train stop in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning. The station, on the border of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, is far from the Queens attacks, a police source said.
The Brooklyn stabbing happened about two hours after a 74-year-old man and a 41-year-old man were stabbed in Queens, cops said.
Rigueur, who lives in the same neighborhood in the Springfield Gardens and Rochdale Village area where the Queens stabbings took place, is a greeter at Woodhull Hospital in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
A lanyard spotted around his neck on a surveillance video turned out to be his hospital ID, the source added. He was wearing it when cops took him into custody.
NYPD detectives grabbed Rigueur at his home Wednesday night after painstakingly tracking surveillance video of his movements from the attacks to his residence, police said. His weapon, a hunting knife, was also recovered.
NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who called the stabber a “menace” on Wednesday evening and vowed a quick arrest in the stabbing spree, which began on Jan. 8.
Rigueur allegedly attacked three victims on Wednesday morning starting just before 7:30 a.m. near 134th Ave. and Guy R. Brewer Blvd. in Queens, according to cops. There, Rigueur allegedly stabbed a 74-year-old man in the back while he was taking his wife to work, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
The attacker “runs up behind the couple without saying a word. He stabs the male one time in his back,” Kenny said. The victim was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was expected to recover.
Minutes later, he targeted 41-year-old Amara Kourouma in the same vicinity.
While Kourouma walked to his car, the stabber passed by in silence, Kourouma told the Daily News. Next thing Kourouma knew, he felt a sharp pain in his back.
“I didn’t say anything to him. He didn’t say anything to me. When I pass him, I just felt [it] in my back,” said Kourouma, a professional driver.
Then, around 8 a.m., Rigueur got on a bus at Guy R. Brewer Blvd. and 115th St., where another confrontation unfolded, cops said.
A 36-year-old man on his way to work asked if it was OK to sit next to Rigueur, who initially agreed, according to Kenny.
Both men got off at Archer Ave. and Parsons Blvd., where the victim was stabbed once. He was hospitalized in stable condition.
Between the morning stabbings, the Rigueur slashed at a bodega’s windows, according to police.
Just after midnight Tuesday, police say Rigueur stabbed a 34-year-old woman near 134th Ave. and 158th St., steps away from Wednesday’s mayhem.
The victim was walking home when the stranger, who was carrying a large knife in his left hand, stormed up and stabbed her in the side, cops said. Medics took her to an area hospital.
The attacker “appeared to be talking to himself” and spewing “gibberish,” Kenny said.
Police soon released surveillance footage of the suspect showing him brandishing the frightening knife.
Cops believe Rigueur is also responsible for stabbing a 61-year-old man in the kidney around 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 8 in Queens.
“In this incident, the suspect actually laughed in the victim’s face after he stabbed him,” said Kenny.
Rigueur was wearing a green jacket, black hoodie and, in some instances, a lanyard or surgical mask, cops said. His choice of clothing linked him to the crimes, police said.
About 75 detectives were on the case, according to Kenny.
Rigeuer’s arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was pending Thursday.
