Three people who died after random stabbings in the streets of Manhattan on Monday should still be alive, but the "criminal justice system in New York City is broken," New York Police Department Chief of Patrol John Chell said on Newsmax on Wednesday.
"This person should not have been on the street," Chell said on "Wake Up America." "These people should be alive today and this is the tragedy of it all, when you really think about it in human terms."
New York City Police arrested a homeless man, Ramon Rivera, 51, charging him with three counts of murder after two men and one woman were stabbed to death, The New York Times reported. The men died soon after they were stabbed and the woman, initially reported in critical condition, died several hours later.
Rivera was released from the Department of Correction's custody in October, where he was being held on burglary and assault charges.
"You have one male going to work, 36 years old, a day laborer, lose his life," Chell said. "You have another man fishing right down the block here, presumably retired, 60-something years old. Dead. You have a woman walking, taking care of business. Dead. This should not have happened. This person should not have been on the street. This person should have been in jail."
New York Mayor Eric Adams said the attacker was suffering from "serious mental health issues" and that the crime was a "clear example of a criminal justice system and a mental health system that continues to fail New Yorkers."
Chell told Newsmax that New York City has "to fix this."
"These are lives," he said. "These are people. These are our neighbors. It's unacceptable."
A solution, Chell added, would be to codify in law what the city and state are doing when it comes to mental health.
"We're talking about people in the street that we all see who are incapable of taking care of themselves," he said. "We have to change our philosophy of laws. We have to get our beds back in our psychiatric facilities."
Chell also discussed the shootings of a New York police officer and a bystander, who were wounded by a career criminal on lifetime parole who held up two Queens businesses.
Police officer Rich Wong, a seven-year veteran of the 103rd Precinct, shot and killed the parolee, Gary Worthy, 57, reported The New York Post. Worthy had 17 prior convictions, including for murder.
"This is another colossal failure within the criminal justice system," said Chell. "I was out in the street last night. I'll tell you, as a professional, when you hear that call and you know what it sounds like your first reaction is, I hope [the officer] survives. And thank God he did. He did a great job."
Chell said Worthy should never have been on the street.
"When he's out in the street, he's robbing stores and firing rounds at people just like he did twice last night," Chell said. "The cop should not have to confront this person on a busy street in Jamaica, Queens, where people are shopping for the holidays. ... This opportunity should not present itself because the system is broken, and that's what we need to say. Enough is enough with this."
It's also important, he said, that bystanders alert police if they see something happening, as they did in both cases this week.
But Chell warned that people should be "very careful when getting involved."
"Grabbing a cop, that's involvement and taking notice and seeing what's around you and getting involved," said Chell. "So the community, everybody in this community, you and us, my family, your family, they are force multipliers by their eyes to help us out."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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