3 unprovoked fatal stabbings across Manhattan show failures of criminal justice and mental health systems, city’s mayor says

By Nic F. Anderson, Melissa Alonso, John Miller, Sabrina Shulman and Sabrina Souza, CNN

(CNN) — Three unprovoked stabbings across Manhattan Monday morning that left two men and one woman dead show how the criminal justice and mental health systems fail New Yorkers, the city’s mayor said.

The suspect is 51-year-old Ramon Rivera – who appears to be homeless and has a history of “severe mental health issues,” authorities said.

Mayor Eric Adams said what happened was a “clear example” of how the criminal justice and mental health systems fail New Yorkers. The investigation will partly focus on why the suspect was on the streets despite being sentenced for a crime a few months ago and if supposed “severe mental health issues” were not evaluated, the mayor said at a news conference.

Rivera has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the attacks. Police said they are not looking for any additional suspects.

Rivera has eight prior arrests according to city officials. His criminal record dates back to 2003, spans multiple states including Florida, Ohio and New Jersey and his address matched a city homeless shelter, according to a law enforcement official. New York officials said on Monday Rivera had been recently charged with grand larceny, but on Tuesday, a judge clarified at his arraignment that he had been charged in October with petty larceny.

Rivera was arraigned in a Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday afternoon and was remanded on a fugitive warrant by Judge Janet McDonnell. He pleaded not guilty, according to records.

McDonnell said Rivera is wanted in the state of New Jersey, not waiving extradition, and went over his last arrest in October for a charge of petty larceny, where the individual asked for supervised release, not bail, and the presiding judge granted it.

The attacks come at a time when the issues of criminal justice, homelessness and the mentally ill have taken center stage at the trial of a former Marine charged with manslaughter in the chokehold death of a homeless street artist on the New York City subway last year.

“It’s a public health safety issue,” Adams said when asked about the triple-homicide at a news conference Tuesday morning. “This is the result of not taking actions and ignoring people who need help.”

The first stabbing victim, Angel Lata Landi, was a construction worker originally from Ecuador, his sister Mariana Lada told CNN. She said her brother had been living in the US for 20 years and he took care of their sister’s son after she died a few years ago.

Family members of Lata Landi were seen crying in the third row of the courtroom on Tuesday.

“We are just asking for justice. That is why we came here (today), so that the city takes responsibility for this,” Lada said.

Community activist Walter Sinches said the victim’s story highlights the plight of migrants who come to the US to work hard and support their families. Sinches and Lada expressed their frustration with the city, demanding accountability from the mayor and criticizing the system for allowing the suspect, with a history of arrests, to freely roam the streets.

Three attacks in less than three hours

The stabbings happened over less than three hours Monday morning.

Around 8:22 a.m., Lata Landi, 36, of Peekskill, New York, was standing in front of a construction site near Chelsea when a “light-skinned man” with a beard approached him and stabbed him in the abdomen, police said. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

More than two hours later, at around 10:25 a.m., a second person was stabbed, police said. The victim, a 67-year-old male identified by authorities as Chang Wang of Manhattan, was fishing near the East River when he was attacked and stabbed multiple times in the abdomen. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. Police initially said the victim was 68 years old in an earlier update.

Then, at around 10:55 a.m., a 36-year-old woman, later identified as Wilma Augustin, was stabbed multiple times in the chest and left arm near the United Nations Headquarters, police said. She was transported to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she later succumbed to her injuries.

Police said a cab driver saw what he believed to be a robbery and followed the suspect before flagging down an NYPD officer. The officer took the suspect into custody, where police recovered two bloody kitchen knives and observed him wearing bloody clothing.

Police believe Rivera stole the two kitchen knives and gloves used in the attacks after throwing a brick through a window of a hardware store on Manhattan’s east side on November 1, according to a police official.

Rivera did not give police a motive for the unprovoked killings, according to the police official, but he allegedly told police he chose to strike these victims because they were alone and distracted.

Rivera’s eight prior arrests were seven felonies and one misdemeanor and he was involved in two incidents in which police encountered him as an emotionally disturbed person, according to police records.

Based on those two incidents, Rivera was taken to a hospital for further mental evaluation and was discharged.

The suspect, arrested in a string of burglaries, larcenies and an assault on a corrections officer in jail, was sentenced to a year in jail and, based on police records, it appears he served eight months of that before he was let out on supervised release.

Adams at Tuesday’s news conference emphasized the need for legislative action at the state level, saying the city needed to take those who were unable to take care of themselves off New York City streets and “give them the humane care that they deserve.”

Adams also addressed critics of his policies, including his directive two years ago allowing first responders to enforce a state law that allows them to potentially involuntarily commit people experiencing a mental health crisis.

“The system has been failing for a long time,” he said. “What I was willing to do and continue to be willing to do is confront it.” He called for more psychiatric beds and a change in mindset, noting, “The street corner is not a psychiatric ward.”

Rivera’s next court appearance is scheduled for November 22, according to court records.

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CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian and Mark Morales contributed to this story