NEW YORK - New York is safe. One of the safest big cities in the country. The most recent criminal statistics say so.
But in a 12-hour spate, that hard-earned distinction took a bloody knock after four people were stabbed, among them two Canadian tourists and a visitor from Texas.
“One crime is one crime too many,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a Wednesday news conference. “But I can understand people being apprehensive... When we hear about something like this, obviously there's cause for concern.”
Tourists and New Yorkers can breathe a little easier, authorities say. Police have arrested a man they say confessed to committing the brutal and apparently unprovoked attacks.
Kenny Alexis, 21, was taken into custody without incident around 4:15 a.m. Wednesday, outside a fast-food restaurant in midtown Manhattan shortly after the two women, both from Montreal, were stabbed, Kelly said.
The police department's top spokesman, Paul Browne, said Alexis admitted to stabbing the Canadians, a Brooklyn man and a man from Texas.
The latter two were ambushed in separate subway attacks. Browne also said witnesses fingered Alexis in all the attacks but one.
Alexis had in his possession the folding knife used in the attacks on the two women when he was apprehended, Kelly added.
He said Alexis had the same knife during a separate incident Wednesday at a deli in which no one was hurt and that a store employee whom Alexis threatened identified the weapon.
Charges were pending against Alexis, who was living in a West Side men's shelter.
Police said Alexis was arrested previously in Boston and New York on a number of charges, including attempted assault, criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct, shoplifting and criminal mischief.
Police said they did not see any signs that Alexis is mentally ill. Kelly said there was no evidence to suggest Alexis targeted tourists and that police are still determining his motive.
Three of the victims remained hospitalized Wednesday afternoon.
All are expected to survive.
The last attack occurred around 4 a.m. as the Canadian women, Melanie Carrier, 22, and Audrey Perrier, 25, were walking not far from Hotel Edison, where they were staying.
After crossing Broadway and 47th Street into a popular square, Alexis approached the women and stabbed each one in the back before fleeing, Kelly said.
The women walked over to a W Hotel, where two security officers tended to them and called 911.
Two of W Hotel's doormen followed the man to a McDonald's and waited for police, who nabbed him as he was leaving the restaurant, according to police and hotel spokesman Jane Lehman.
Kelly said Perrier had been treated and released.
Thirty minutes prior to that attack, police said Alexis entered the deli and tried to take two beers.
The employee confronted Alexis, who then brandished a knife and ran away.
Around 3 a.m., 30-year-old Ambrosio Castro was waiting with a friend on a midtown subway platform in Rockefeller Center when he was stabbed in the stomach and chest.
Police said Alexis told Castro, who lives in Brooklyn, to hand over his cell phone in what was an apparent robbery.
At about 4 p.m. Tuesday, Kelly said Christopher McCarthy, 21, of Houston, was knifed by Alexis in a subway car on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
McCarthy and his girlfriend had gotten lost after heading in the wrong direction on the subway, and switched trains to travel back downtown when he was assaulted.
Kelly said detectives had also linked to Alexis a palm print that was found on the subway train in which McCarthy was riding. McCarthy was in critical but stable condition Wednesday.
He had been stabbed near the heart.
McCarthy's father, Joe, came to Manhattan from Houston and said during a news conference that his son had forgiven the assailant responsible. “He hopes that (the attacker) can get help,” said Joe McCarthy, who was accompanied by his wife.
Police in Boston arrested Alexis twice in less than two months earlier this year, and a records mishap made it appear that he did not have a prior criminal record when a judge released him without bond, according to a spokesman for the Suffolk County, Mass., district attorney.
After both arrests - one in February for trespassing and one in March after he berated people and broke a glass at a restaurant - Alexis was evaluated by court-appointed doctors and found mentally competent, spokesman David Procopio said.
He did not appear at follow up court dates in either Boston case, Procopio said.
Kelly said Wednesday that the subway system had never been safer, and police handed out statistics documenting that violent crime had fallen substantially.
The slew of stabbings comes on the heels of recent news that violent crime as a whole in the city continues to decline despite a national spike.
The FBI has said that while homicides rose 4.8 percent nationwide last year, they fell 5.4 percent between 2004 and 2005 in New York City.
Violent crime in New York dropped 1.9 percent, according to the FBI, in a year when such crimes rose 2.5 percent nationwide.
“One crime is one crime too many,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a Wednesday news conference. “But I can understand people being apprehensive... When we hear about something like this, obviously there's cause for concern.”
Tourists and New Yorkers can breathe a little easier, authorities say. Police have arrested a man they say confessed to committing the brutal and apparently unprovoked attacks.
Kenny Alexis, 21, was taken into custody without incident around 4:15 a.m. Wednesday, outside a fast-food restaurant in midtown Manhattan shortly after the two women, both from Montreal, were stabbed, Kelly said.
The police department's top spokesman, Paul Browne, said Alexis admitted to stabbing the Canadians, a Brooklyn man and a man from Texas.
The latter two were ambushed in separate subway attacks. Browne also said witnesses fingered Alexis in all the attacks but one.
Alexis had in his possession the folding knife used in the attacks on the two women when he was apprehended, Kelly added.
He said Alexis had the same knife during a separate incident Wednesday at a deli in which no one was hurt and that a store employee whom Alexis threatened identified the weapon.
Charges were pending against Alexis, who was living in a West Side men's shelter.
Police said Alexis was arrested previously in Boston and New York on a number of charges, including attempted assault, criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct, shoplifting and criminal mischief.
Police said they did not see any signs that Alexis is mentally ill. Kelly said there was no evidence to suggest Alexis targeted tourists and that police are still determining his motive.
Three of the victims remained hospitalized Wednesday afternoon.
All are expected to survive.
The last attack occurred around 4 a.m. as the Canadian women, Melanie Carrier, 22, and Audrey Perrier, 25, were walking not far from Hotel Edison, where they were staying.
After crossing Broadway and 47th Street into a popular square, Alexis approached the women and stabbed each one in the back before fleeing, Kelly said.
The women walked over to a W Hotel, where two security officers tended to them and called 911.
Two of W Hotel's doormen followed the man to a McDonald's and waited for police, who nabbed him as he was leaving the restaurant, according to police and hotel spokesman Jane Lehman.
Kelly said Perrier had been treated and released.
Thirty minutes prior to that attack, police said Alexis entered the deli and tried to take two beers.
The employee confronted Alexis, who then brandished a knife and ran away.
Around 3 a.m., 30-year-old Ambrosio Castro was waiting with a friend on a midtown subway platform in Rockefeller Center when he was stabbed in the stomach and chest.
Police said Alexis told Castro, who lives in Brooklyn, to hand over his cell phone in what was an apparent robbery.
At about 4 p.m. Tuesday, Kelly said Christopher McCarthy, 21, of Houston, was knifed by Alexis in a subway car on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
McCarthy and his girlfriend had gotten lost after heading in the wrong direction on the subway, and switched trains to travel back downtown when he was assaulted.
Kelly said detectives had also linked to Alexis a palm print that was found on the subway train in which McCarthy was riding. McCarthy was in critical but stable condition Wednesday.
He had been stabbed near the heart.
McCarthy's father, Joe, came to Manhattan from Houston and said during a news conference that his son had forgiven the assailant responsible. “He hopes that (the attacker) can get help,” said Joe McCarthy, who was accompanied by his wife.
Police in Boston arrested Alexis twice in less than two months earlier this year, and a records mishap made it appear that he did not have a prior criminal record when a judge released him without bond, according to a spokesman for the Suffolk County, Mass., district attorney.
After both arrests - one in February for trespassing and one in March after he berated people and broke a glass at a restaurant - Alexis was evaluated by court-appointed doctors and found mentally competent, spokesman David Procopio said.
He did not appear at follow up court dates in either Boston case, Procopio said.
Kelly said Wednesday that the subway system had never been safer, and police handed out statistics documenting that violent crime had fallen substantially.
The slew of stabbings comes on the heels of recent news that violent crime as a whole in the city continues to decline despite a national spike.
The FBI has said that while homicides rose 4.8 percent nationwide last year, they fell 5.4 percent between 2004 and 2005 in New York City.
Violent crime in New York dropped 1.9 percent, according to the FBI, in a year when such crimes rose 2.5 percent nationwide.
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