NYC resident Donny Ubiera, aged 32, was arrested over the weekend for committing back-to-back random subway slashings in Queens. He has been allegedly charged with two counts of attempted murder, assault and criminal possession in connection with the pair of assaults.
The NYC Police Department said in a statement,
"Donny Ubiera stabbed two surburbanites without any provocations in separate incidents Friday and Saturday. He purportedly slashed one commuter’s face and attacked another person in the neck. Ubiera was taken under custody on Saturday morning."
On Thursday, the accused had spent a single night serving jail-time, for refusing to set down a knife when confronted by police officials, and trying to flee the scene instead.
Expressing her displeasure at a serial slasher roaming free on the streets, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell stated that the accused already has prior 14 arrests, including the assaults.
She mentioned,
“His records demonstrate that each time he is involved in unprovoked violence against innocent victims, the criminal justice has him back on the streets and the subways rather than jail or psychiatric treatment. He inevitably targets another victim.”
Law enforcement authorities have also revealed that Ubiera has been the subject of prior calls to the police for being an "emotionally disturbed" person.
Details of the subway slashings committed by Donny Ubiera
The first transit-system attack occurred at Queensboro Plaza in Long Island City, Queens, at 8:40 am on Friday, where 62-year-old victim was left with bruises on his face and hand. Following the initial assault, there was a puddle of blood in the train, owing to which it had to be taken out of service.
The next day, at 7:15 am, Ubiera allegedly struck again at the 74th Street-Broadway station in Jackson Heights, Queens. According to police, he approached his unwitting victim, brandished a "large" knife, and stabbed him in the neck before fleeing the scene.
Both victims were taken to the Elmhurst hospital in NYC and are currently in stable condition.
According to sources, surveillance footage showed Ubiera in a flashy shirt, threatening people with in an NYC metro station, a knife. He was captured on the street in the same gold and black button-up shirt that he had allegedly been wearing during the subway assaults.
A look at Donny Ubiera's past criminal activities
On Sunday, cops also charged him in a different incident from Wednesday at a Queens bakery, where he reportedly used a stick to strike a 45-year-old employee at Delicias Caleas, on Roosevelt Avenue.
He was previously involved in an incident that took place on Janurary 8, at 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, where he allegedly drew out a knife, threatening a bodega clerk who had tried to stop him from shoplifting a drink.
Ubiera was arrested just weeks before the subway slashing, for four separate attacks on the same day. These attacks included an assault on two Duane Reade employees on East 2nd Street in Manhattan and another on two deli workers at Sunny and Annie's in Alphabet City.
Ubiera was also arrested on November 5 at a homeless shelter on Ditmars Boulevard in Queens, NYC for reportedly beating his roommate.