Man charged with three counts of first-degree murder

He was arrested and released many times this year

Authorities said blood was found on his clothes

NEW YORK — Authorities are questioning why a man accused of three fatal stabbings in Manhattan was allowed off the street after multiple arrests in New Jersey and New York earlier this year.

Ramon Rivera, 51, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in Monday’s deadly attacks, authorities said.

“Three New Yorkers. The unprovoked attacks left us searching for answers as to how something like this could happen,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Investigators were trying to understand what triggered the attack, which occurred over 2 1/2 hours on Monday.

“No words were exchanged. No property was taken. He was just brutally attacked,” said Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York Police Department. “He walked up to them and started attacking them with knives.”

A message seeking comment was left for an attorney who represented him in a previous case, the Associated Press reported.

The suspect was arrested and released in New Jersey

Rivera was arrested in New Jersey earlier this year, according to the Hudson County District Attorney’s Office.

Court documents showed Rivera was arrested on Jan. 17, 2024, in Hoboken. He was indicted by a grand jury on three charges, including burglary, theft and criminal mischief.

Rivera was released on pretrial supervision under New Jersey’s bail reform law, spokeswoman Caitlin Mota said.

Mota said the court issued a bench warrant after Rivera failed to appear in court.

Previous arrests in New York

NBC4 New York reported Rivera was also arrested eight times in New York last year, he said. 7 of those detained were arrested for serious crimes. He was also arrested in Ohio and Florida.

City records show Rivera was released from custody on Oct. 17, according to the report. Later that day, he was accused of shoplifting from a store in Manhattan.

Rivera was out on bail at the time of Monday’s fatal stabbing, the report said.

Blood found on clothes and knives

The first stabbing, on West 19th Street, killed 36-year-old construction worker Angel Lata Landi, who was standing next to a work site near the Hudson River just before 8:30 a.m., police said. About two hours later, on the other side of Manhattan Island, a 68-year-old man was attacked while fishing in the East River near East 30th Street.

Both men died shortly after the stabbings, Kenny said. The fisherman’s name was not immediately released.

The suspect then appears to have traveled north near the riverbank. Around 10:55 a.m., a 36-year-old woman identified as Wilma Augustin was stabbed multiple times near the United Nations headquarters on East 42nd Street, Kenny said. He died at the hospital later Monday, police said.

A passing taxi driver saw the third attack and notified police at nearby First Avenue and East 46th Street, authorities said. Police teams caught the suspect in a short time.

Adams, a Democrat, called Monday’s violence “a clear-cut example” of failures in the criminal justice system and elsewhere.

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