A serial slasher was wanted in connection with a string of knife attacks targeting homeless New Yorkers sleeping on city benches — including a brutal assault that killed a 34-year-old man last week, sources said.
The male suspect allegedly snuck up behind three people, all believed to be unhoused, and plunged a knife into them while they were in parks throughout Manhattan from July 5 through July 11, according to police.
In the first incident on July 5, the man crept up on his 34-year-old victim who was sleeping on a bench in Hudson River Park and stabbed him in the stomach, police said.
Officers found the man with a gash wound to his stomach at around 4:40 a.m. EMS rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.
The knife-wielding brute struck again three days later.
He stabbed a 59-year-old homeless man who was sleeping on a bench near East 49th Street and Madison Avenue at around 10 p.m. on July 8, police and sources said.
The man suffered a stab wound to the stomach and was rushed to New York Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center in stable condition.
Two days later, the suspect knifed a homeless woman who was sleeping inside Stanley Isaacs Playground near the FDR Drive.
The 28-year-old victim was sleeping on the ground near the playground’s basketball courts when she felt what he believed was a punch to her left side and woke up, law enforcement sources said.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the serial stabber standing over her with a knife in his hands, according to the sources.
The victim attempted to chase her attacker, but stopped when she realized she had been stabbed and dialed 911.
EMS brought her to Metropolitan Hospital in stable condition.
The latest victim told cops she recognized her attacker and doesn’t know the man’s actual name, but that he goes by “Delly,” sources said.
The string of stabbings targeting homeless New Yorkers comes about four months after a deranged killer murdered two homeless men and wounded three others in a series of shootings in New York City and Washington, D.C. He was busted for the shooting spree in March.