Police: Homeless Man Goes On Stabbing Spree With Scissors In Greenwich Village
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A homeless man armed with a pair of scissors went on what police are calling a random attack in Greenwich Village, leaving two men seriously hurt.
The stabbing happened around 9:30 p.m. Monday on West 14th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
Police said 53-year-old Douglass Gaston threatened a 15-year-old boy walking by with his mother and then used the scissors to stab two men.
As he lay in a Bellevue hospital bed, Jeremy Santiago, of the Bronx, told CBS2's Hazel Sanchez he's lucky to be alive after he was stabbed twice by the stranger near Union Square.
"I know he wasn't in the right state of mind, but I'm traumatized," he said.
Santiago said he was hanging out with about 15 of his friends – mostly homeless men – at their favorite gathering spot outside the Salvation Army headquarters when they noticed Douglas acting combative.
"We surrounded him to try to subdue him, to ask him 'What's wrong? What happened? Who did what to you so we can deal with it?' And he didn't even say nothing," he said. "He just stabbed me the first time."
That's when his 29-year-old friend stepped in, trying to protect him.
"He came to my rescue to try to help me out, and he got stabbed by him," Santiago said. "So then I went to his rescue to help him, and I ended up getting stabbed a second time."
Police arrested Gaston, who they say has several prior arrests for petty theft, drugs and assault.
Jason Farahan has owned a jewelry store on 14th Street for 20 years. He said there are violent homeless altercations in the neighborhood nearly every day.
"All day long, I call the cops to try to get them out of here," he told Sanchez. "They go across the street and come back here again. Big issue."
"They fight every day, they panhandle, they beg for money, they beg for food, it's what they do," another man said. "They've got nowhere to go."
Santiago said he expects to be released from the hospital Wednesday, but it might be some time before he returns to his usual hangout spot.
Gaston was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
