Stabbing victim succumbs to injuries, homeless repeat-offending suspect in mass attack remains in NYPD custody

The third victim of a Manhattan stabbing spree died late Monday. Wilma Augustin, 36, was another victim of alleged killer Ramon Rivera, 51, the Daily Mail reported. Rivera, a homeless man with a history of mental illness and criminal convictions, had just been released from Rikers Island before allegedly going on an unprovoked rampage that killed three people.

New York police charged Rivera with three counts of first degree murder, ABC News reported, and he was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. The stabbings claimed two men before Augustin was mortally wounded. Police arrested Rivera after a taxi driver called and said he saw a man accosting a woman. He thought it was a robbery in progress and he tried to intervene by encouraging pedestrians to stop the attacker.

Witness Baha Biten told ABC7: “I'm walking with him, I'm saying ‘drop it man, it's not worth it". I told him "drop the bag, there's going to be cops up ahead.’” Surveillance video caught Rivera retrieving a kitchen knife that he had hidden in his backpack and hiding it inside his shirt. Police took the assailant to Manhattan’s 10th Precinct. He was seen leaving the building Monday evening in handcuffs and shackles, wearing white prison coveralls.

Police had charged Rivera with commiting a number of robberies going back to 2023. He pleaded guilty to those crimes, received a sentence of almost a year in jail and was released from Rikers Island after eight months. He was arrested again as soon as hit the street, charged with another previous offense but was let go, the Mail reported. It was after that when he began his stabbing spree.

Mayor Eric Adams (D-NYC) says he can’t understand why a man like Rivera was let loose on the public again. “We are still looking over his record, but there's a real question on why he was on the street,” the mayor said Monday, according to the Mail.