A man accused of fatally stabbing a father of two heading home from his job at Citi Field on Thursday, in what police officials have called an unprovoked attack, has been arrested on murder charges.
Charles Moore was getting off a northbound 4 train at the East 176th Street station at Jerome Avenue in the Bronx when the attacker stabbed the man multiple times in the back and chest. It happened just before 9 p.m.
Moore was in critical condition when he was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and did not survive his injuries. Family members said he was heading home from work when he was attacked at the Morris Heights station.
Family and friends gathered Friday to mourn the 38-year-old who everyone called Chuck.
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"He was good people. He didn't have to die like that," Moore's friend, Nicholas Lugo, said.
Moore died during a bloody 10 hours in New York City's subway system. In that span of time on Thursday, four separate knife attacks in the five boroughs kept police busy.
Three knife incidents before Moore's occurred along the same subway line — two of which were at the same station. The first incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. on the southbound platform of the A/B/C/D lines at 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. Police said a verbal dispute between two men turned violent, with one of them stabbing the other in the back.
The suspect, seen wearing blue glasses with a blue jacket and jeans, ran upstairs to the street; police are still searching for him. The victim was taken to Mount Sinai - St. Luke's Hospital with injuries that were not considered to be life-threatening.
About an hour later, on the northbound platform of the same station, a 29-year-old man was standing with his wife when a stranger came up to them and menaced the couple with a knife, according to police. Officers were still on the southbound platform after the first incident of the afternoon and came over to arrest the man.
A knife was recovered from the suspect, who was brought into custody without incident. No injuries were reported.
Another man was hospitalized hours later after a different unprovoked attack at a station in Brooklyn. Police said the attack occurred around 5:15 p.m. in the mezzanine of the A-train station at Grant Avenue and Pitkin Avenue in Cypress Hills.
The suspect went up to the victim in that incident and slashed him once on the neck, according to police. It was not known why the suspect attacked, but he took off immediately after.
The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he is expected to survive.
NYPD brass addressed safety concerns Friday, promising an increased presence throughout the system, walking trains and platforms.
"We're gonna be on the trains, uniform train patrol, platforms. this is what we're gonna do," Chief of Transit Jason Wilcox said.
The MTA said its cameras aided investigators in tracking down the alleged suspect, and warned future attackers of the subway system's surveillance tools in a statement Sunday.
"As we've said before, anyone who targets transit riders or employees will have their picture taken and the NYPD will bring them to justice. In this terrible case, we thank detectives who used video from MTA cameras as part of a successful investigation resulting in rapid arrest of the suspect," MTA Chief of Safety and Security Officer Pat Warren said.
