Top police brass applauded on Tuesday a group of heroic transit cops who apprehended two Manhattan subway stabbing suspects in as many days.
Five officers from Transit District 4 collared Kemal Rideout, 28, on Tuesday morning just after 9 a.m., ending a nearly 48-hour search for the man allegedly responsible for slashing three women on June 18.
NYPD officials said the same officers also cuffed 33-year-old Claude White for allegedly stabbing 32-year-old Tavon Silver to death aboard a south bound 4 train as it pulled into the Union Square Station on June 16. Armed with a photo of White, the squad apparently nabbed the murder suspect hopping the turnstile at Union Square.
Chief of Transit Michael Kemper heralded Sergeant Clyde Jasmin, Captain William Haut and Police Officers Jasmine Roman, Bonlei Wong and Ivan Nunez as heroes.
“Officers were literally working around the clock to find this male to end his threat and to provide justice to the victims. And hard work and good police work pays off,” Chief Kemper said of White’s arrest. “I cannot understate how proud and impressed I am by the officers present with us. Simply put, phenomenal, great police work.”
According to Chief of Detectives James Essig, White and Silver knew one another with the deadly altercation apparently stemming from a disagreement over drugs. White is charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Meanwhile, Rideout stands accused of going on a June 18 rampage throughout the Manhattan subway system in which he attacked three women with a knife.
The slashings began at around 4:20 p.m. at the East 86th Street subway station, near Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side. when Rideout allegedly jumped the turnstile before approaching a 48-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman from behind and deeply lacerating their right legs.
Hours later, Rideout allegedly hit a 28-year-old woman aboard a train near the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station, slashing her in the left thigh.
Rideout — who, sources said, suffers from mental illness — was taken out of Transit District 4’s Union Square headquarters in cuffs on Tuesday afternoon to be transported to a medical facility, but subjected to something of a public shaming along the way.
New Yorkers cussed at and heckled Rideout as he was placed in the back of an ambulance.
Rideout is charged with three counts of felony assault.
Despite these incidents, overall crime in the transit system is down by 6.1%, Chief Kemper said Monday, with felony assaults also down by about 4%. Additionally, stabbing or slashing incidents using a sharp object are down 12% when compared to last year (78 incidents in 2023 and 89 during the same time frame in 2022.)
MTA Chair Janno Lieber thanked the NYPD for swiftly cuffing the suspects while also going as far as to say that the subway system is presently a great deal safer thanks to NYPD patrols.
“It is a great comfort to our riders and to everyone in the region to know that the NYPD has subway riders’ backs,” Lieber said.
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