Suspect in NYC slashing spree found casually snacking, trying to ditch bus fare: report

Four New York City Police Department transit officers apprehended a serial subway slashing suspect and a murder suspect within 24 hours, police announced Tuesday.

Claude White, 32, is charged with second-degree murder after allegedly stabbing a man on the subway on Saturday morning, and Kemal Rideout, 28, is charged with three counts of felony assault for allegedly stabbing three women on the subway on Sunday afternoon.

“These same officers were literally working around the clock to find this male to end his threat and to provide justice to the victims. And hard work and good police work pays off,” NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said during a Tuesday press conference. 

He continued, “I cannot understate how proud and impressed I am by the officers present with us. Simply put, phenomenal, great police work, work with meaning and work with tremendous value, and work … that NYPD cops across all of New York City do each and every day.”

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On Tuesday morning, the four transit officers nabbed Rideout after he allegedly slashed the legs of three women — ages 19, 28 and 48 — on the subway around 4:20 p.m. before exiting the car. Their injuries were non-life-threatening, according to police.

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Rideout’s priors include forcible touching, assault, attempted rape and criminal mischief in Norwich and Riverhead. 

Rideout was also apparently evading bus fare, MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber said Tuesday. Police apprehended the suspect as he was snacking on a bag of chips after he was kicked off a bus for fare evasion, The New York Post reported.

Kemper described the slashings as “unprovoked,” saying the suspect and victims were “completely unknown to each other.”

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The murder suspect, White, accused of stabbing a victim on a southbound No. 4 train at the Union Square-14th Street stop in Manhattan on Saturday over a “narcotics dispute,” was on parole for a December 2022 robbery.

He also had a bench warrant for drinking in public, and eight priors, including grand larceny, assault and robbery, bank robbery, trespassing and fare evasion.

NYPD cameras captured White on camera Saturday morning, and on Monday around 10:40 a.m., the four transit officers observed him trying to enter the subway without paying and apprehended him.

Kemper named the four officers involved in both arrests as Clyde Jasmin, Ivan Nunez, Bonnie Wong and Jazmin Roman.

Kemper said the NYPD has dedicated “over a thousand” additional officers to patrol the subway system since last fall. The NYPD has seen about a 6% decrease in subway crime and about 66% less subway crime victims so far this year compared to the same time last year. There has been a 52% increase in subway crime-related arrests. Fare evasion arrests have increased 143%, he said.

“We’re never going to be happy with any crime,” Kemper added. “We recognize that we have a lot of work to do. … We are not pounding our chest and waving the flag of victory. That is not what’s happening here. But what we want to say and what … Lieber mentioned was a lot of investments, a lot of effort, and great police work has stabilized crime from where it was last year in years past. And we’re going to continue this.”