Fugitive Suspect in Staten Island Stabbings Captured: NYPD

A fugitive accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend and two of her children at a Staten Island hotel was captured Saturday and charged with murder.

A four-day manhunt by U.S. Marshals and the NYPD culminated with the 4 p.m. capture of Michael Sykes, who was nabbed while ringing the doorbell to a friend's residence on 31st Street in the Woodside neighborhood. The friend had called 911 to summon police.

Federal agents had joined NYPD officers in canvassing New York City's five boroughs for Sykes, suspected of fatally stabbing Rebecca Cutler, 28, their 4-month-old daughter Maiyah Sykes and her one-year-old half sister Ziana Cutler on Wednesday at a Ramada Inn on Staten Island.

Sykes is also accused of stabbing two-year-old Miracle Cutler, who was rushed into surgery after the stabbing and has been in critical but stable condition.

Sykes was charged Saturday night with three counts of first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder and robbery, authorities said. There was no indication he had obtained a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

Wanted posters for Sykes blanketed the Howard Houses in Brooklyn where he lived with his parents and younger brother, while detectives, patrol officers and federal authorities looked for signs of him.

Sykes was seen with Cutler and his family before the stabbings, going to breakfast with them and buying soda and Pop Tarts, investigators said. He was seen on surveillance footage entering their hotel room, then leaving four minutes later. He got on a bus, and got off at the St. George Ferry Terminal. He wasn't caught on camera again, but is thought to have taken the Staten Island Ferry back to Manhattan.

Authorities say that he called his mother after the attack, confessed to the crime and talked about committing suicide.

Cutler and her family had been living at the hotel since December and had been in and out of the shelter system since 2014. The first time she entered the system, the woman had claimed to be the victim of domestic violence with someone other than Sykes; she later recanted those claims.

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