NYPD officers stand at the scene of the stabbings near the United Nations headquarters in New York

Three people were killed in separate stabbing incidents in Manhattan on Monday. New York police have arrested a 51-year-old man in connection with the attacks.
The first stabbing happened around 8:30 a.m. near the Hudson River on West 19th Street. A 36-year-old construction worker was killed at his construction site. Two hours later, a 68-year-old man was fatally stabbed while fishing in the East River near East 30th Street.
Around 10:55 a.m., a 36-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times near the United Nations headquarters on East 42nd Street. She later died at a hospital. A taxi driver witnessed the attack and alerted police, who apprehended the suspect at nearby First Avenue and East 46th Street.
Police say the suspect did not speak to his victims and nothing was stolen from him. “No words were exchanged. No property was taken. Just attacked, vicious,” said Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York Police Department. “He approached them and started attacking them with knives.”
Mayor Eric Adams addressed the attacks while speaking to reporters, saying, “Three New Yorkers. The unprovoked attacks that left us searching for answers as to how this could happen.”
Authorities suspect that the perpetrator may be homeless. He had been convicted in a criminal case a few months ago and was arrested in a grand theft case last month. Police have not yet released the names of the suspect or the victims.
The violence occurred in a city where crime remains a major concern in politics and daily life, especially after the pandemic. Homicides in New York are down 14 percent in two years, but serious assaults are up 12 percent, according to police statistics.