Transcript: Mayor Adams Briefs Media on Series of Incidents in 10th and 17th Police Precincts

November 18, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams: I intentionally asked Officer Garvey to stand with us today, 19 years in the department and has not lost his desire to protect the public.

And today we have three innocent New Yorkers who's going about their lives were the victims of a terrible, terrible assault. Two lost their lives, one is fighting for her life. It is a clear, clear example of the criminal justice system, mental health system that continues to fail New Yorkers. And it is troubling that we're standing here today, in a day that brings a great level of difficulty and pain to the city. Three New Yorkers, unprovoked attacks, that left us searching for answers on how something like this could happen.

But I want to thank the everyday New Yorker, who notified Officer Garvey and told him what he observed. When he saw the assault, he followed the individual involved and gave the information to Officer Garvey who took quick action and was able to apprehend the person who we believe is a suspect.

This investigation is going to continue to unfold and we want New Yorkers to know that we are not looking for any additional suspects at this time. We believe we have someone in custody and we are not looking for any additional suspects.

Our hearts go out to the families, goes out to other New Yorkers who observed such a terrible action and we will keep them in our prayer, but again I want to thank that New Yorker who saw something, who did something and because of that, I believe because of the quick actions of Officer Garvey, we have saved the lives of other New Yorkers who could have been the victim of this assault. I want to now turn it over to Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon and then our chief of detectives will give you a preliminary and up-to-date on the investigation, what we have thus far.

Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon: Okay, thank you Mr. Mayor and good afternoon everyone. On behalf of the NYPD, I want to express our deepest sympathy to the three people attacked this morning. This senseless violence should never happen, but I want to thank Officer Garvey for his proactive approach to policing and that is what we stress. We have reactive, but also proactive and Officer Garvey represents what we've been telling the officers for many, many, many years, but through the swift work of the NYPD officers, this attacker is in custody right now. At this time, there are no other outstanding suspects.

I want to thank our 17th and 10th Precinct Patrol Officers for their quick and effective response to these incidents and the detective squads are both commands for what will become a complete and thorough investigation. I also want to thank the members of the public who called 911 and who jumped into action to help their fellow New Yorkers and finally, thank you to Mayor Adams for his ongoing public support. The mayor is here with us today because he truly cares about the people of New York City and he understands that public safety is the foundation of everything we do here.

Now we are just beginning to sort through the violence this morning, but New Yorkers should know the NYPD will always be there with our city and we will continue to fight for safety and security of every New Yorker. For some additional details on these incidents, I'll turn it over to Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny. Thank you.

Chief Joseph Kenny, Chief of Detectives, New York City Police Department: Good afternoon. The information I'm about to give to you is preliminary as our investigation is still ongoing. I'm going to discuss the three stabbing incidents that occurred this morning in the 10th, 13th, 17th Precincts here in Manhattan.

These random attacks left two innocent victims dead and another one fighting for her life. I will not be releasing the victims' names at this time, we're still waiting to notify their families. We do have a suspect in custody and we are not looking for any other perpetrators at this time.

Incident number one occurs in the confines of the 10th Precinct today at 8.22am in front of 444 West 19th Street. Our victim is a male Hispanic, 36 years old. He's standing in front of a construction site where he is employed when without warning, he is stabbed in the abdomen. The assault appears to be unprovoked at this time. The perpetrator fled southbound on 9th Avenue. Our victim was removed to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 8:50 in the morning. Witnesses stated that the perpetrator was a male, light-skinned, in his 60s, with a beard. He's wearing a grey shirt and a dark-colored ski hat. Witnesses described the knife as a kitchen knife.

Approximately two hours later, incident number two occurs at 10:27am at 500 East 30th Street and the East River by the Old Water Club. A male, Asian, 68 years old who was fishing at the time of the attack was stabbed multiple times throughout the body. A 911 caller rings the bell and police respond to the location. Unfortunately our victim is removed to Bellevue Hospital, where he is pronounced dead.

Thirty minutes later after this incident, our third and final attack occurs at 10:55am at 42nd Street and 1st Avenue right by the U.N. Our third victim is described as a female, Black, 36 years old. She's stabbed multiple times throughout her body. She's brought to Cornell Medical Center where she is currently in critical condition.

A short time later at 46th Street and 1st Avenue near the Turkish Mission to the U.N., police at the scene are alerted by a witness that a possible perpetrator who had just committed a robbery was walking in the area. This male was taken into custody by 17th Precinct Patrol. They recovered two large kitchen knives that are covered in blood. His clothing is also covered in blood. This person of interest was brought back to the 10th Precinct Station House for processing. He's a male, Hispanic, 51 years old. He appears to be undomiciled. He has eight prior arrests, last being for a grand larceny, October of this year. Thank you.

Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard, Public Information, Police Department: Alright, obviously we still got a lot of work to do with this, but we'll take just a couple of questions. I'll start here on the left.

Question: Chief, do we have any information as to, were words exchanged prior to these interactions with these three individuals?

Chief Kenny:As of right now, these attacks seem to be unprovoked, that he just walked up to themand began to attack them with the knives.

Question: Chief, is it clear, [inaudible] to elaborate on the failed system movement, is he out on bail? Is it an eligible case or a non-bail eligible case?

Mayor Adams: First, I want to acknowledge the presence of Councilman Powers and Councilman Bottcher, these both impact their areas. We are still looking over his record, but there's a real question on why he was on the street. It's preliminary now, but he was sentenced a few months ago, and there's some real questions that we need to look at on why he was on the street, and he has some severe mental health issues that should have been examined, and that's what we're looking at as part of the investigation.

Question: Can you go into the witness, you mentioned that he saw something. What have you told Officer Garvey?

Chief Kenny: So the witness is a cab driver. He witnesses the second, I'm sorry, the third attack of the female. He believed it to be a robbery. He didn't know that she was stabbed, so he began to follow her, thinking that he was a robbery suspect.

Question: The cab driver?

Chief Kenny: The cab driver, yes.

Question: And the purple backpack that's at 46th and 1st, is that the victim's backpack?

Chief Kenny:That's part of our investigation.

Question: Can you talk about when Officer Garvey stepped in?

Officer Robert F. Garvey, Police Department: What was the question again?

Question: When you started noticing something unusual and stepped in.

Officer Garvey: I just heard a commotion from where I was, stepped outside, heard what people were saying, and reacted.

Question: What were people saying?

Officer Garvey: No comment on that.

Question: Chief, were there any robbery attempts on any of the victims' phones?

Chief Kenny: No, like I said, we're sorting through additional witness statements and video, but at this time, no words exchanged, no property taken, just attacked and stabbed viciously.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Chief Kenny: Once he was alerted that this perpetrator was possibly involved in a crime, thinking that maybe it was a robbery, he detained him. And obviously at this point, information's coming over the radio. The detective squad gets involved, we start putting the pieces together to realize it's part of the three attacks that had taken place that morning.

Mayor Adams: And I think that we cannot overemphasize, here this officer made an apprehension of a person that took the life of two individuals, and he didn't know what he had. He responded. And we cannot overemphasize how much, when these officers come to the scene of a crime or someone tells them that someone carried out a violent act, these officers respond to that act.

And, it just goes to show you after 19 years of service, there's still a commitment to ensure that the people of this city are safe. And when you don't know what you are responding to- you have an individual who had those weapons, and, you know, this officer put himself in harm's way to make sure he could stop others from being harmed. If Officer Garvey was not there, these random acts of violence- this person conceivably would have continued those random acts of violence, so he saved the lives of fellow New Yorkers.

Question:Chief, did the suspect say anything in regards to any statements when he was arrested? Would you have any idea what his motivations might have been?

Chief Kenny:Not at this time.

Question: You said that the last stabbing was by the U.N.There was a line of diplomatic [inaudible]? Can you talk to me more about the Secret Service's involvement in this situation?

Chief Kenny: I can't speak for another agency. I can just speak to what the NYPD did in this case. I know there were other people out on the scene that assisted, but at this time I can't speak to what the Secret Service may have done.

Question: Are any of the victims dignitaries at this time? Do we know that?

Chief Kenny: They are not.

Question: The last two places where the attacks happened were pretty close, and you have evidence that he walked. Do we know how he got from 19th Street over, and also, was he just walking with the knives out, or did he conceal them and then pull them out?

Chief Kenny: From the video that we see, as of right now, we have video of him with the knives out. But as of this point, our investigation is preliminary. It appears that he was traveling by foot.

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right, thank you everybody.

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