BERLIN (AP) — The Berlin Zoo's newest baby pygmy hippo made her public debut on Thursday, a day after her name — Toni, inspired by German soccer star Antonio Rüdiger — was chosen from more than 20,000 suggestions.
Toni was born on June 3. She's still not much bigger than a small dog but delighted zoo visitors as she explored her enclosure alongside her mother, Debbie.
The zoo sought suggestions for the baby's name and sifted through the thousands of names over recent weeks. Zoo director Andreas Knieriem said he initially leaned toward traditional Berlin names like Boulettchen — which translates to “little meatball” — but the little hippo's popularity on social media and the many name proposals suggested that she would become “a real world star.”
“We wanted to take account of this development with a short, concise name that also works well outside Berlin,” he said in a statement Wednesday. Rüdiger, a Berlin native who plays for Real Madrid and Germany, agreed to become the animal's honorary patron — or, as the zoo put it, “coach” — sealing the deal for “Toni.”
Debbie reared previous offspring in 2004, 2007 and 2008. The zoo has succeeded in breeding the species since 1921, which it says was the first time it occurred in Europe.
Pygmy hippopotamuses are an endangered species and fewer than 2,500 adults remain in Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the zoo said. They are already extinct in Nigeria and face a major loss of habitat as West African forests are cleared for mining and agricultural use, it added.
Toni, a pygmy hippo born at the Berlin Zoo in June makes her first public appearance with her mother, Debbie on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP)
Toni, a pygmy hippo born at the Berlin Zoo in June makes her first public appearance with her mother, Debbie on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP)
Toni, a pygmy hippo born at the Berlin Zoo in June makes her first public appearance with her mother, Debbie on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Paul Zinken (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — A man fatally stabbed three people across a swath of Manhattan on Monday morning, carrying out a series of random attacks without uttering a word to his victims, officials said.
The 51-year-old suspect was in police custody after being found with blood on his clothes and the two kitchen knives he was carrying, authorities said. The suspect's and victims' names weren't immediately released.
“Three New Yorkers. Unprovoked attacks that left us searching for answers on how something like this could happen,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference.
Investigators were working to understand what propelled the rampage, which happened within 2 1/2 hours.
“No words exchanged. No property taken. Just attacked, viciously,” said Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives. “He just walked up to them and began to attack them with the knives.”
The first stabbing, on West 19th Street, killed a 36-year-old construction worker who was standing by his work site near the Hudson River a little before 8:30 a.m. About two hours later and across the island of Manhattan, a 68-year-old man was attacked while fishing in the East River near East 30th Street.
Both men died shortly after the stabbings, Kenny said.
The suspect then apparently traveled north near the riverfront. Around 10:55 a.m., a 36-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times near the United Nations headquarters on East 42nd Street, Kenny said. She died later Monday at a hospital, police said.
A passing cabdriver saw the third attack and alerted police on nearby First Avenue and East 46th Street, officials said. An officer soon apprehended the suspect.
The bloodshed happened in a major city where, like in others, crime has taken a prominent place in political discourse and everyday concerns in the years since pandemic lockdowns emptied streets and spurred disorder. Killings in New York City so far in 2024 have declined 14% in two years, but serious assaults are up about 12%, according to police statistics.
Some recent stabbings in public places have drawn attention, including a fatal attack at the Coney Island subway station just weeks ago.
Adams, a Democrat, called Monday’s violence “a clear, clear example” of failures in the criminal justice system and elsewhere.
The suspect in Monday's rampage, who apparently is homeless, had been sentenced in a criminal case a few months ago and was arrested in a grand larceny case last month, officials said.
The rampage came three years after a string of stabbings at various points along a subway line killed two people and wounded two others within a few hours.
In 2019, four people who were sleeping in doorways and sidewalks in Chinatown were beaten to death, and a fifth was seriously injured, early one Saturday morning.
Associated Press writers Karen Matthews in New York and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed.
This story has been corrected to show that the construction worker who was killed was 36, not 26.
NYPD officers stand at the site where the suspect of a stabbing spree was captured outside Turkish House, New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A jacket covered in blood lays on the ground at the site of a stabbing spree near the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Blood stains the ground at the site of a stabbing spree near the United Nations Headquarters, New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Blood stains is the ground at the site of stabbing spree near the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A shoe is left at the site of a stabbing spree near the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
This image provided by Office of the New York Mayor shows New York Mayor Eric Adams, left center, as he briefs the media on a series of incidents that took place within the confines of the 10th and 17th Police Precincts, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Mayoral Photography Office/Michael Appleton via AP)
NYPD officers stand at the site where the suspect of a stabbing spree was captured outside Turkish House, New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
NYPD officers stand at the site of stabbing spree near the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
An NYPD officer works at the scene of a stabbing in New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/David R. Martin)
This image released by the New York City Police Department shows a knife that was recovered at a stabbing in New York, Monday Nov. 18, 2024. (New York City Police Department via AP)
