A man accused of stabbing two teenagers at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal on Christmas Day was freed by a judge just weeks prior after a string of violence, and he now allegedly has stabbed a fellow prisoner at Rikers Island.
The alleged assailant, Steven Hutcherson, 36, of the Bronx, allegedly attacked two teenage girls at the Tartinery in the Grand Central Dining Concourse on Monday after arguing with restaurant staff over sitting in the establishment’s area. According to reports, he remarked that the two teen girls, 14 and 16, were allowed to sit there, ultimately pulling out a knife and stabbing them — one in the thigh and the other in the back, the latter of whom was treated for a collapsed lung at Bellevue Hospital.
The man allegedly shouted racist remarks as well. Law enforcement sources told the New York Post at the time that the man yelled, “I want all the white people dead,” and “I want to sit next to the crackers.”
His stabbing spree did not end there, however. After police took Hutcherson into custody at the Eric M. Taylor Center, he allegedly got up from the cot in his dorm and stabbed his 43-year-old cellmate with a 1.5-inch ceramic blade at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday. The attack left “gashes across the left side of his face and head” of Hutcherson’s cellmate, sources informed the Post.
The Post continued, “A correction officer intervened quickly, pepper-spraying Hutcherson and rushing the victim to the jail infirmary and eventually to Elmhurst Hospital to be treated for the slash.” Hutcherson had apparently been searched for weapons before the attack, but none were found. An investigation is underway as to how Hutcherson acquired the blade.
These attacks are far from the man’s first infractions. According to the Post, he has been arrested “17 times over the last two decades — and the subject of more than a half dozen domestic violence complaints by a Manhattan woman he has allegedly stalked for over a year, according to sources.”
Further, he was put back on the streets just before the Christmas Day attack by Judge Matthew Grieco, whom Mayor Eric Adams (D) appointed, with a conditional discharge after threatening a stranger. According to reports, he shouted at the victim, “Why are you working for white people? I’m going to kill this man.”
He then allegedly threatened to shoot the victim, adding, “I don’t care what kind of green card the government gave you. Open your mouth and say something. I will shoot you right now.”
That hearing for that incident was on December 12, mere weeks before he allegedly stabbed the two teenagers.
“If the judge had only held this individual accountable, two innocent tourists, children, may have had a Merry Christmas instead of an ‘attempted murderous’ Christmas,” a law enforcement source told the Post, which detailed more of Hutcherson’s history of violence and mental health episodes:
He’s also had a string of encounters with cops for mental health disturbances, most recently on Dec. 5, when he was found acting unruly outside a Bronx apartment building and brought to St. Barnabas Hospital for psychiatric evaluation by police, the sources said.
Prior to that incident, officers found him standing on the fire escape of that same building on Mt. Hope Place screaming while refusing to come down on Nov. 27, according to the sources. Then too, he was brought to St. Barnabas Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
He had his share of run-ins with law enforcement in 2023, too — once for resisting arrest after walking into a Bronx precinct stationhouse “acting belligerent and refused to leave, prompting cops to arrest him and find a dagger and switchblade on him,” per the Post. He later received a 15-day sentence after smashing a display case at the Bergdorf Goodman department store.
This only adds to the continued critiques of woke judges and prosecutors going soft on crime, particularly in big, blue cities such as New York City. Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg busies himself by targeting former President Donald Trump while crime runs rampant — a point emphasized by House Republicans:
RELATED: Jordan Torches Bragg for Caring “More About Perpetrators Than Victims” at NYC Crime Hearing
Correction: This story has been corrected to note that Hutcherson was freed by a judge just weeks prior to his attack on the young girls and not after that attack.