2 are killed and 1 is critically wounded in New York City knife rampage. A suspect is in custody

NEW YORK (AP) — A man stabbed three people across a swath of Manhattan on Monday morning, killing two and critically wounding the third 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, 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 is hospitalized in critical condition.

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 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)

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike slammed into a densely populated residential area in Lebanon’s capital near key government and diplomatic buildings late Monday, killing at least five people as the U.S. pressed ahead with cease-fire efforts.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two missiles hit the area of Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood – where local U.N. headquarters and Lebanon’s parliament and prime minister’s office are located.

Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to severely weaken the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group and end its barrages in Israel that the militants have said are in solidarity with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.

The U.S. has been working on a cease-fire proposal that would remove Israeli ground forces from Lebanon and push Hezbollah forces far from the Israeli border. Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who is mediating for the militants, is expected to meet with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday. The White House has not confirmed Hochstein's visit.

Labor Minister Mostafa Bayram, who met with Berri on Monday, said Lebanon would convey its “positive position” to the latest U.S. proposal.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike, which also wounded 24 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Many areas in central Beirut, including Zoqaq al-Blat, have become a refuge for many of the roughly 1 million people displaced by the ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut. The strike also occurred near a Hussainiye, a Shia mosque.

The target of the airstrike remained unclear, and the Israeli army did not issue a prior warning. Ambulance sirens echoed through the streets as an Associated Press photographer on the scene saw significant casualties on the street.

It was the second consecutive day of Israeli strikes on central Beirut after more than a month-long pause. On Sunday, a strike in the area of Ras el-Nabaa killed Hezbollah media spokesperson Mohammed Afif, along with six other people, including a woman. Later that day, four people were killed in a separate strike in the commercial district of Mar Elias.

The Israeli military has not said what the target of that strike was.

Minutes after Monday's strike, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a post on X, “All countries and decision-makers are required to end the bloody and destructive Israeli aggression on Lebanon and implement international resolutions, most notably Resolution 1701.”

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, ended a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah and was intended to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. However, the resolution’s full implementation has faced challenges from both sides.

The resolution is again on the table as part of an American proposal for a cease-fire deal, aiming to end 13 months of exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli ground forces, who invaded southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, would fully withdraw from Lebanon, where the Lebanese army and the U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL would be the exclusive armed presence south of Lebanon’s Litani River. Hezbollah would withdraws from the area.

A Western diplomat familiar with the talks told The Associated Press there is a sense of “cautious optimism.” The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes negotiations, said a final deal, however, was “still in the hands” of the warring players.

Israel is said to be pushing for guarantees it can continue to act militarily against Hezbollah if needed, a demand the Lebanese are unlikely to accept. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Israel would continue attacking Hezbollah infrastructure while the US and other countries led negotiations for the ceasefire. “The military campaign will continue until the immediate threat from Lebanon is removed," he said.

Also on Monday, Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles against Israel. A rocket that hit the northern Israeli city of Shfaram killed one woman and injured 10, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services.

More then 3,500 people have been killed by Israeli fire, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. In Israel, 77 people, including 31 soldiers, have been killed by Hezbollah projectiles, while over 50 soldiers have been killed in the Israeli ground offensive.

Israel has said it is targeting Hezbollah in order to ensure that thousands of Israelis can return to their homes near the border.

—

Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed from Tel Aviv.

Rescue workers and policemen search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Rescue workers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Rescue workers and residents search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Residents and rescuers gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Residents and rescuers gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Rescue workers work at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Residents and rescuers gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Rescue workers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Rescue workers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Civil defense workers extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Firefighters and rescuers gather outside a computer shop hit in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)