Attack In Riverside Park: Five Stabbed With Scissors In New York

An attack in Riverside Park today left five people wounded.

According to the NY Times, an “emotionally disturbed” man started attacking people with a pair of scissors along the bike path near the Hudson River. A one-year-old child, as well as two men and two women, were injured in the attack at Riverside Park.

All of the victims are expected to survive but ABC notes that one of the women was listed in critical condition.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that Julius Graham, a 43-year-old man who was living at a shelter in the Bronx, attacked a 36-year-old jogger at about 8 am. He then attacked a man who was walking his dog and another woman running along the bike path.

Julius then attacked a 35-year-old man who was pushing his son in a stroller. The man was stabbed in the chest as he tried to protect his child. The boy was slashed on the arm.

Kelly said: “The man is attempting to protect his son, and his son is slashed in the arm.”

The series of attacks in Riverside Park ended when a bystander intervened to help the father and his little boy. The bystander, who declined to give his name, was able to wrestle Graham to the ground. He then kept the man subdued until police arrived.

Kelly said: “He did a good job.”

The Riverside Park attack comes a few days after another incident in Fort Tryon Park. A woman and her 8-month-old baby were attacked during that incident but the woman was able to fight off the assailant and escape with her child unharmed.

Kelly said that the two incidents were not related and added that park attacks are extremely rare.

Kelly said: “Parks are very, very safe… We see something like this happen and it concerns everybody, we understand that. But the amount of incidents of crime in parks is minuscule.”