A man who allegedly stabbed two teenage girls at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal this Christmas while shouting, "I want all White people dead" was free despite concerns over his violent mental state, reports said.
Steven Hutcherson, 36, then also reportedly slashed a fellow inmate with a blade after his arrest for the random stabbing of the teens, who were having lunch at the transit hub's dining concourse.
The two teenagers, ages 14 and 16, were visiting from South America and were transported to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation, officials said. The 16-year-old was reportedly stabbed in the back and suffered a collapsed lung, while the 14-year-old was stabbed in the thigh.
Following the stabbing, Hutcherson was charged with felony counts of attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first and second degree and attempted assault in the first degree. He was also charged with a hate crime.
After his arrest and detainment, Hutcherson, who was being held without bail at Rikers Island, allegedly got up from his cot located at the Eric M. Taylor Center and attacked a 43-year-old man who was lying feet away from him around 8 a.m. on Thursday, according to a report from the New York Post.
Citing sources familiar with the unprovoked attack, the Post noted that Hutcherson used a 1.5-inch ceramic blade to slash the other inmate's face and head. Following the incident, a corrections officer reportedly pepper-sprayed Hutcherson and rushed the victim to an infirmary located within the jail.
The inmate who was attacked by Hutcherson was later taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was treated for the slash wounds, which the sources told the outlet were between one and five inches long.
A spokesman for the city Department of Correction told the Post that Hutcherson, who also uses the alias Esteban Esono-Asue, "will be processed for rearrest for this incident."
The department is now investigating how Hutcherson was able to obtain the blade used in the attack after he was screened for weapons upon his arrival on Rikers Island Tuesday.
Hutcherson, who has 17 prior arrests and is considered by law enforcement sources to be an "emotionally disturbed person," was arrested twice in the last six months. Prior to the attack on Monday, Hutcherson was most recently arrested last month after he threatened to shoot someone.
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Hutcherson pleaded guilty to both of his November 7 and July 24 weapons possession arrests. Hutcherson reportedly received a 15-day sentence following the July arrest. In regard to the November arrest, Hutcherson received a conditional discharge from Judge Matthew Grieco, who was appointed to the bench by NYC Mayor Eric Adams in March. Hutcherson was also issued a temporary restraining order against his victim from the November incident.
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office "believed Mr. Hutcherson would benefit from substantial mental health programming, including inpatient treatment," a spokesman said Wednesday, according to the Post.
"Ultimately, through counsel, Mr. Hutcherson declined mental health programming and the transfer of his cases to the misdemeanor mental health treatment court," the representative said. "Three cases were resolved via pleas to the top charge receiving 15 days jail, and in one case, the court delivered a sentence of a conditional discharge over the people’s objection."
A spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration said that neither the DA nor the defense attorney mentioned the one-year mental health treatment program or transferring the case to mental health court during a December 12 hearing.
"The Judge ordered individual counseling as part of a conditional discharge with the aim of further assessing what both parties concurred were underlying anger issues," the spokesman said, noting that Hutcherson had been free since his November 8 arraignment in the case, according to the Post's report.
Prior to the stabbing incidents this week, Hutcherson faced accusations of stalking and mental disorders by his ex-girlfriend.
Charisma Knight, 37, who dated Hutcherson off and on in 2021 and 2022, told the Post that he had allegedly threatened to kill her "at least five times" in the past year and became more deranged after he stopped taking his medication for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
"I called the police all the time and said ‘he’s bipolar and schizophrenic, he needs help, he needs help.’ These people actually do need help. If you’re just letting them go . . . he might just kill somebody," Knight said in her comments to the outlet. "He should have been in a mental institution, where he cannot come out, and they can monitor him taking his medication."
Knight also said she believes a lot of Hutcherson's actions against others have to do with him wanting to die.
"I feel like sometimes he wants to die," she said. "He says and does these things to people because he wants them to react so that he doesn’t have to kill himself."
Knight, who said Hutcherson believed the government was always after him, reportedly obtained an order of protection against Hutcherson last year, claiming that he had threatened to kill her and once even told her mother "I’ma kill your daughter."
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Speaking Tuesday about the stabbing of the two teenagers from Paraguay, Mayor Adams, a Democrat, admitted that such incidents inside Grand Central Terminal make people feel unsafe.
"Any time you have incidents in these high-profile locations, it sends the feeling of people don't feel safe, and that's why we have to zero in and make the arrest as soon as possible and make sure we get those repeated offenders off our streets," Adams said.
