Rolling Danger: Man In Wheelchair Stabs Multiple People In NYC

According to the New York Police Department, a man in a wheelchair allegedly carried out several stabbings, beginning with two victims, both in their 60s, on March 16. After these initial attacks, the man is alleged to have stabbed a 35-year-old man in the chest, who later sought treatment at Mt. Sinai Queens Hospital in Queens, New York. Subsequently, he is accused of stabbing a 46-year-old woman who arrived at a police precinct with a laceration on her forearm.

As Pix 11 reports, a video captured on the Citizen app depicts five police officers surrounding the wheelchair-bound man and apprehending him. According to the NYPD, the man is currently in police custody. All of the man’s victims survived their encounters and were treated at local medical facilities and released. A full investigation is pending, per the NYPD. 

Though the man’s victims were all adults, in 2023, New York City experienced a sharp uptick in youth stabbings. According to data from the NYPD, the 467 minors who were stabbed in the city represent a 48% increase from 2022. As CBS News reported, that specific population’s explosion is juxtaposed against a 6% increase in victims of all ages. 

New York Mayor Eric Adams told the outlet that he believed the rise in youth stabbings was due to a crackdown on guns. “I think there’s a combination of things that are giving way to the stabbings. Number one, the police department has done an amazing job of cracking down on guns. I believe over 13,000 were removed off of our streets, and you know, some young people have started to use knives.”

However, the NYPD CompStat tracker does not have a separate statistical category for stabbings, but felony and misdemeanor assaults in New York City have increased by nearly 2% since 2023. Feasibly, some of those could include stabbings, but without a clear delineation it is impossible to know for sure.

According to the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit, independent think tank for the criminal justice field, in its study of crime trends in 38 U.S. cities, the council found that in 2023, “Overall, crime rates are largely returning to pre-COVID levels as the nation distances itself from the height of the pandemic, but there are notable exceptions. While decreases in homicide in the study cities (and many other cities) are promising, the progress is uneven and other sources of crime information, including household surveys of violent victimization, indicate higher rates and more pronounced shifts than reports to law enforcement agencies.”

The council concluded that crime does not occur in a vacuum but is often related to social and economic forces. They also called on leaders to implement strategies proven to reduce violent crime.

“In short, crime trends do not occur in isolation from broader social and economic forces but neither are they immune from short-term intervention. There are multiple strategies that do not require new laws or large new public expenditures that can reliably and sustainably reduce crime. Leaders in the public and private sectors should redouble their efforts to implement these approaches.”

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