Suspect caught after random NYC stab attacks on at least five strangers

The suspect in a string of at least five unprovoked knife attacks on New Yorkers was caught Wednesday night, according to police sources.

They’d raced to find a masked “menace” whose rampage lasted nine days — with the suspect laughing in the face of one of the victims.

“We’re going to find him and we’re going to do that with your help,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban vowed at a Wednesday evening press conference.

Three victims were slashed on Wednesday morning, with that day’s rampage starting just before 7:30 a.m. near 134th Ave. and Guy R. Brewer Blvd. in Queens, according to cops. There, the unhinged suspect stabbed a 74-year-old man in the back while he was taking his wife to work, said Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.

The attacker “runs up behind the couple without saying a word. He stabs the male one time in his back,” Kenny said alongside Caban. The victim was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where he was expected to recover.

Minutes later, targeted a 41-year-old man in the same vicinity.

The attacker came from out of the blue, said that victim, Amara Kourouma.

While Kourouma walked to his car, the suspect passed by in silence, Kourouma told the Daily News. Next thing he knew, he felt a sharp pain in his back, he said.

“I didn’t say anything to him. He didn’t say anything to me. When I pass him, I just felt [it] in my back,” said Kourouma, a professional driver.

He felt lucky that there were no serious injuries, he added.

“I’m feeling OK now. It didn’t catch my organs or my spinal cord,” Kourouma remarked.

Between the early morning stabbings, the suspect slashed at a bodega’s windows, according to police.

Cops sought a man wearing a green jacket, black hoodie and, in some instances, a lanyard or surgical mask. About 75 detectives were on the case, according to Kenny. Believing the serial stabber to be traveling between Brooklyn and Queens on the subway, extra cops were sent to major transit hubs to keep an eye out.

“Our citywide manhunt will continue 24/7 until he’s apprehended,” said Chief of Patrol John Chell.

A suspect with a lanyard was arrested in Queens on Wednesday night, cop sources said. A knife was recovered, too. The man was found through an extensive video canvas, according to authorities.

Bruce An, owner of the nearby Jefferson Dry Cleaners, was opening up Wednesday when the 74-year-old victim stumbled inside looking for help.

“He asked me, ‘Help!’ I said, ‘What happened?’ I thought he fell on the street,” An, 62, recalled. “He said he was walking on the street around the corner and one young guy behind him, he stabbed him and he ran. He was just walking down the street and behind him, bang!”

The victim’s hands were bloody and his wound was dripping more blood on the concrete, An said.

“I thought it was just a little minor but later when the officer came and opened (his) jacket it was full of blood,” he added.

Around 8 a.m. Wednesday, the suspect got on a bus at Guy R. Brewer Blvd. and 115th St., where another confrontation unfolded, cops said.

A 36-year-old man on his way to work asked the suspect if he could sit next to him, and that attacker initially agreed, according to Kenny.

“At some point during the trip, other seats on the bus become available and the perpetrator asks him, ‘OK, there’s free seats now, you can move away from me,'” the chief continued. “And the victim declines to move and that starts the fight.”

Both men got off at Archer Ave. and Parsons Blvd., where the victim was stabbed once. He was hospitalized in stable condition. The suspect, whom Caban described as a “menace,” fled on foot.

Just after midnight Tuesday, a 34-year-old woman was stabbed near 134th Ave. and 158th St., steps away from Wednesday’s mayhem.

The victim was walking home when the stranger, who was carrying a large knife in his left hand, stormed up and stabbed her in the side, cops said. Medics took her to an area hospital.

The suspect “appeared to be talking to himself” and spewing “gibberish,” Kenny said.

Police released surveillance footage of the suspect showing him brandishing the frightening knife.

Cops believe the same suspect is responsible for stabbing a 61-year-old man in the kidney around 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 8 in Queens.

“In this incident, the suspect actually laughed in the victim’s face after he stabbed him,” said Kenny.

The victim was nearing 157th St. and 137th Ave. when the stabber crept up from behind and jammed the knife into the victim’s lower back.

After a good Samaritan called 911, the victim was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was expected to recover.

Detectives are investigating the possibility that the man is responsible for yet another stabbing, on the J/M/Z platform at the Myrtle Ave.-Broadway train station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Wednesday morning, cops said. The incident took place two hours after the one in Queens.

That victim was taken to Woodhull Hospital in stable condition, cops said.

Raymond Coombs, 62, has lived on Guy R. Brewer Blvd. for four decades, said until now he’s never been nervous to walk the streets.

“This guy is definitely a loose cannon,” he said. “They have to find him pretty quickly because he’s going to just escalate until he kills somebody and that’s not good at all.”

Authorities urged New Yorkers to be aware of their surroundings.

“In some of the incidents, he’s walking behind [victims] for quite a distance. In other incidents, he’s just coming across them and stabs them,” said Kenny. “Very random. Not a word was said. Totally unprovoked.”

Kourouma, one of the victims from Wednesday, voiced fear while the suspect was still at large.

“Imagine he had a gun — he’d kill more people,” he said. “He didn’t ask for nothing. He’s just a crazy guy.”