No bail for suspect in NYC subway stabbings

NEW YORK — A mentally ill man accused of murdering two people and seriously wounding two others on a grisly A train stabbing spree was ordered held without bail on Monday.

Manhattan prosecutors charged Rigoberto Lopez with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder at his virtual arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday afternoon.

Assistant District Attorney Alfred Peterson somberly described how the 21-year-old suspect carried out the stabbings during a 14-hour stretch between upper Manhattan and Far Rockaway, Queens — the city’s longest subway line.

Authorities said Lopez is mentally ill and has spent time in at least one hospital psychiatric ward. Criminal Court Judge Barbara Jaffe remanded him at prosecutors’ request and ordered medical attention.

All of the victims were homeless and relying on the subway system for shelter.

Lopez, 21, was taken into custody Saturday night at W. 186th Street and Audubon Avenue in Washington Heights after hundreds of police officers were deployed to keep the public safe and find the mystery killer.

The first attack happened in upper Manhattan’s Hudson Heights neighborhood around 11:20 a.m. Friday. Lopez allegedly stabbed a 67-year-old homeless man in the right knee and left buttocks as the victim sat in a walker inside the 181st St./Fort Washington Ave. station.

About 12 hours later, the second victim was discovered dead, stabbed numerous times in the neck, inside an idling, blood-spattered subway car.

Less than an hour and a half later, on the other side of the city, a third victim in the spree was discovered dead under a train seat. Manhattan prosecutors said Lopez stabbed the 44-year-old woman seven times in her chest, abdomen, and arm.

Lopez then rode the A train to Fort Washington, where he encountered his fourth and final victim sleeping on a stairwell, according to prosecutors.