NYPD: Suspected Queens serial stabber charged with attempted murder, assault

Police officially charged a 27-year-old man for allegedly stabbing six people during a string of incidents in Queens and Brooklyn, the NYPD said on Thursday.

Jermain Rigueur was arrested on Wednesday evening after the NYPD mobilized an extensive effort to find him, which included deploying helicopters and additional officers in subways and on streets, police said. Rigueur worked as a greeter at Woodhull Medical Center, police officials said on Thursday.

Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals, said Rigueur had passed a background check to get the job, which he started in mid-November and had no prior arrests at the time.

He added that Rigueur is now on administrative leave, and will be terminated if he’s convicted of the attacks.

“He will never return to Woodhull again,” Katz said.

Rigueur did not have a documented history of mental illness, according to police. Information about his attorneys was not immediately available.

Rigueur recently moved to Queens from Suffolk County, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said on Thursday.

Kenny said police detectives visited every housing complex and homeless shelter in the area where the stabbings took place. One Queens resident gave police access to their security camera system, which Kenny said was crucial to solving the case.

“Ultimately, it came down to basic detective work … knocking on doors,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said at a news conference on Thursday.

Rigueur was awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on charges of attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon for the attacks, which sent each of the victims to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said Rigueur lived in Rochdale, not far from where he allegedly snuck up behind his victims — all strangers — and stabbed them, unprovoked, with a "hunting knife." The attacks all took place within an area of several blocks, according to police officials.

“It didn’t appear that he was looking to stop anytime soon,” Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday.

Kenny said the attacks did not appear to target any specific groups, since the victims were of different ages and ethnicities.

Police officials also described a second, unrelated set of recent stabbings that took place on the subway. The NYPD arrested 27-year-old Mark Ford of East Elmhurst, Queens for the two train stabbings, neither of which were fatal.

He allegedly stabbed a 42-year-old man in the shoulder on a D train riding through 59th Street and Columbus Circle on Wednesday at around 6:00 a.m.

About an hour and a half later, police said he stabbed a 19-year-old man in the arm on a 2 train in the Bronx at East 174th Street.

Police said both incidents appeared to be unprovoked, involving strangers. Ford is being charged with felony assault and criminal weapons possession, and was arrested Thursday afternoon near the West Village.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the age of the suspect in the subway stabbings. Mark Ford is 27.