WHY WAS HE FREE?
'Shover's prior vic: 'A danger to society'
The creep accused of shoving an ex onto Manhattan subway tracks over the weekend should never have been freed from prison, a previous victim railed to The Post on Monday.
Jenny Aquino said she’s still haunted by the day Christian Valdez burst into her apartment “like a demon” in 2017 and viciously stabbed her and her 4-year-old daughter — and can’t understand why the paroled Valdez was free to unleash the lower Manhattan subway station attack on Saturday that left the victim maimed.
“I still have PTSD and my daughter still has nightmares,” Aquino, 43, said of Valdez, who now uses they/them pronouns, according to prosecutors. “I think he should be in jail forever. He needs to be somewhere put in and not come out.
“They shouldn’t have even let him go out in the first place.”
Aquino said she met Valdez, 35, around her South Bronx apartment building and urged them to go to church with her — never suspecting Valdez was mentally unstable.
‘Like a real demon’
On Sept. 13, 2017, she had just returned to her third-floor apartment after church with her daughter, Bella Perez.
“I just heard a boom on the door,” she recalled. “When I heard that boom something told me to leave out of the fire escape. Me and my daughter had to run out of the fire escape. He came onto the fire escape.
“He stabbed me and I was trying to take the thing away from him and I thought if he saw Bella he would stop,” Aquino said. “So I was like, ‘Chris, look at Bella.’ But when he saw her that’s when he looked like a real demon. He was choking her and he almost threw her out the window.”
That’s when a neighbor intervened and saved her life, she said.
“He’s not mentally stable,” Aquino said of Valdez.
Valdez was arrested and pleaded guilty of second-degree attempted assault.
He was sentenced to up to eight years in prison in 2020 but was paroled from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in January 2023.
On Saturday, police said Valdez got into an argument with his 29year-old ex at the Fulton Street Station near Chambers Street in Manhattan when Valdez allegedly shoved the victim into the path of an oncoming train.
The victim — who also uses they/them pronouns — was struck and lost the lower portions of both legs. The ex was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where they remained Monday, officials said.
Valdez fled the scene of the attack but was busted later on Saturday in Brooklyn by the NYPD.
Valdez was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court late Sunday and charged with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. He was ordered held without bail.
Fears he’ll return
Meanwhile, Aquino said she and Bella, who is now 11, remain vigilant and afraid Valdez will somehow come back to their home.
She filed a lawsuit against Valdez and GMZ Properties, the owner of her building, in September 2018, claiming her landlord didn’t provide safeguards to ensure her safety, court records show. The lawsuit was settled out of court on Jan. 12, 2023 — three days after Valdez was released from prison.
“They cannot let that guy out if he’s gonna keep doing stuff like that,” Aquino said.