Christmas Day stabbing in Grand Central's dining concourse wounds 2 teen girls
A man stabbed two teen girls in Grand Central Terminal’s dining concourse on Christmas Day, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The girls sustained nonlife-threatening injuries, and the accused stabber was arrested, the MTA said.
The stabbing happened at about 11:25 a.m., and the man was detained a minute after the violence. Both girls were brought to Bellevue Hospital by ambulance. Their conditions weren’t disclosed.
The stabber was identified as Steven Hutcherson, 36, authorities said. Charges include attempted murder, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Several of the charges contained hate-crime enhancements. He couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
Hutcherson, also known as Esteban Esono-Asue, was ordered jailed without bail, according to Doug Cohen, a spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, who provided a charging document.
The stabbings were precipitated by an altercation in the dining concourse. Hutcherson told an employee that he didn’t want to sit with Black people but with white people, using a derogatory term for the latter, one of the employees told the police, the document says.
"Shortly after being seated and given water,” according to the document, the employee “observed the defendant stand up, walk over to a table where a family of individuals who appeared to be white were seated, take out a knife from his pocket, and stab a female individual in the back … as the above-described family was trying to get away from the defendant,” the employee saw “the defendant stab a second, younger female individual in the leg.”
The girl who was stabbed in the back has a punctured lung.
A man stabbed two teen girls in Grand Central Terminal’s dining concourse on Christmas Day, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The girls sustained nonlife-threatening injuries, and the accused stabber was arrested, the MTA said.
The stabbing happened at about 11:25 a.m., and the man was detained a minute after the violence. Both girls were brought to Bellevue Hospital by ambulance. Their conditions weren’t disclosed.
The stabber was identified as Steven Hutcherson, 36, authorities said. Charges include attempted murder, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Several of the charges contained hate-crime enhancements. He couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
Hutcherson, also known as Esteban Esono-Asue, was ordered jailed without bail, according to Doug Cohen, a spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, who provided a charging document.
The stabbings were precipitated by an altercation in the dining concourse. Hutcherson told an employee that he didn’t want to sit with Black people but with white people, using a derogatory term for the latter, one of the employees told the police, the document says.
"Shortly after being seated and given water,” according to the document, the employee “observed the defendant stand up, walk over to a table where a family of individuals who appeared to be white were seated, take out a knife from his pocket, and stab a female individual in the back … as the above-described family was trying to get away from the defendant,” the employee saw “the defendant stab a second, younger female individual in the leg.”
The girl who was stabbed in the back has a punctured lung.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
