Two men arrested in string of recent subway stabbings, NYPD officials say
New York City Police Department officers patrol a subway car in New York on March 22. Credit: Bloomberg/Stephanie Keith
The New York City Police Department said Tuesday it made arrests in four high-profile subway stabbing incidents over the weekend — including one fatality — in what a high ranked police official said Tuesday was “phenomenal, great police work.”
The arrests came the day after police officials announced they were increasing police presence in the subway system due to the surge in violent incidents.
In one case, Claude White, 33, of Brooklyn was charged with second-degree murder for stabbing another man on a downtown Lexington Avenue subway train early Saturday morning in Manhattan, NYPD chief of detectives James Essig said.
In a briefing with reporters at police headquarters, Essig said that White was nabbed for an attempted subway fare evasion Monday morning when he admitted to transit officers that he was the man wanted in the death of Tavon Silver, 32, of the Bronx.
White said that he and Silver had a dispute over narcotics on the train, said Essig, adding that White told the police where they could find the weapon used.
White fled the subway and Silver was pronounced dead at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, according to police.
White, who was on parole for an earlier robbery when he was arrested, has eight arrests on his record, Essig said.
In addition to the murder charge, White was also charged with an aborted bank robbery in Manhattan earlier in the month which netted him $100, the chief of detectives said.
Police also arrested a 28-year-old upstate man on charges he stabbed three woman on Sunday afternoon without provocation on the Lexington Avenue IRT line.
The women were all stabbed once in the leg by Kemal Rideout, of Norwich, in Chenango County, officials said.
Essig said Rideout, whose arrest record included a 2011 bust in Riverhead for criminal mischief, was charged with three counts of first-degree assault. None of the woman suffered life threatening injuries.
According to NYPD Transit chief Michael Kemper, Rideout’s photo was grabbed from MTA subway cameras and sent to city cops on their smartphones.
A group of transit officers spotted Rideout from his photo and arrested him early Tuesday as he was walking down an upper Manhattan street, police officials said.
“I cannot understate how proud and impressed I am of the officers,” Kemper told reporters, as the arresting cops stood nearby. “Simply, put, phenomenal, great police work, work with meaning and work with tremendous value.”
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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