Madman stabs 5, including tot
By Kirstan Conley, Kevin Sheehan and Jamie Schram October 1, 2013 | 9:12am
Investigators examine the scissors used in the bizarre attack (left), as the toddler stabbed in his stroller is returned home from the hospital Tuesday. Photo: Stefan Jeremiah / Robert Miller
A scissor-wielding madman went on a bloody stabbing spree on the Upper West Side on Tuesday morning, randomly attacking at least five people, including a child in a stroller and his ballet dancer father, before cops carted him off, authorities said.
The attacker, Julius James Graham, 43, a homeless man originally from Texas, slashed two men, two women and the child before he was taken into custody, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
“Around 7:50 a.m., the suspect stabs a woman, a jogger in the back on the running path on Riverside Drive,” Kelly told reporters later.
“He then moves further down the path, he then sees another female jogger, he slashes her in the neck. He continues to move south and a little east when he encounters a man with a stroller with his 2-year-old son. He slashes that man in the chest as the man is attempting to protect his son and his son is slashed on the arm.”
Kelly said an unidentified good Samaritan helped subdue the suspect. “He did a good job,” Kelly said. Kelly said it was unknown what sparked the attack. Among the injured was James Fayette, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, whose son, Luke, was also slashed as he sat in his stroller.
The frightened boy was treated and released from St. Luke’s Hospital. Hours later, a woman carried him into their Upper West Side home, shielding the bandaged left arm that was injured in the senseless attack.
The boy’s father, James, remained hospitalized with a chest wound. Kelly said none of the victims’ injuries were life-threatening.
Also injured in the attack were Deanna Koestel and Jessica Lipps, 32, who were stabbed while jogging. Koestel was undergoing surgery, as was Ben Loehnen, who was stabbed in the stomach while walking his dogs. Graham was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychic evaluation, sources said.
“The guy is a f—ing nut. He just took a pair of scissors and started stabbing everyone randomly, including a 2- to 3 -year-old child,” a law enforcement source said.
“He was running down the [bike] path, going from person to person, stabbing them with a scissors. He stabbed a man, he stabbed a woman, he stabbed a man, he stabbed a child. Whoever he encountered he stabbed,” a second source said.
One victim sprinted to a Department of Sanitation facility on West 59th Street and told workers that people had been slashed near a bike path and were bleeding and needed help.
Sanitation worker Shurita Fields, 51, called 911 and ran to the scene to give the victims first aid. “I told her to be calm and that we were going to stay with her and she was going to be OK,” Fields said.
A security guard at a construction site said he saw one of the victims walking east on West 59th Street covered in blood as two other women tried to help her.
“Three ladies were walking up 59th Street,” said Vincent Mallard, 49. “As they got closer I saw the blood on her neck, arm and back. She was crying in agony, She told me that a man cut her on the neck. She was panicked.”
Additionally reporting by Kevin Sheehan.
