Police on Saturday arrested a fugitive suspected of stabbing his girlfriend and all three of her small children with a kitchen knife in a brutal attack at a hotel used as homeless housing, ending a four-day manhunt.
Michael Sykes was last seen on surveillance footage on Wednesday last week heading to the Staten Island Ferry shortly after the fatal attack, and a call to his mother to say he had killed his girlfriend and was going to kill himself, police said. However, he took the ferry back to Manhattan and had been traveling through Brooklyn and Queens.
He was arrested in Queens on Saturday afternoon and taken back to a police precinct on Staten Island. He was arrested on three counts of murder, attempted murder and robbery charges. Sykes was in police custody on Saturday night and could not be reached for comment. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.
Photo: AP
Rebecca Cutler, 26, her 19-month-old daughter, Ziana, and 4-month-old daughter, Maiyah, died in the attack at a Ramada Inn on Staten Island. Two-year-old Miracle was said to be in critical condition, but stable. Sykes was the father of Maiyah.
Shortly before the attack, Sykes bought a can of Coke and a Pop-Tart from a delicatessen near the hotel, a worker there told the Staten Island Advance.
“He looked like he was doing something wrong,” the worker, Sammy Abdul, told the newspaper.
He said Sykes used Cutler’s food assistance card to pay for his purchases and “his hands were shaking, he was looking to his back.”
New York Police Department chief of detectives Robert Boyce said nobody apparently heard or saw what happened, but hotel surveillance video footage shows Sykes entering Cutler’s hotel room just before 9am on Wednesday last week and leaving four minutes later. Police said there was no history of domestic violence between the two, but a report had been filed a day before the stabbing after he was accused of stealing Cutler’s phone, claiming she was contacting another man.
A housekeeper found the injured family and called police. Cutler had been stabbed more than 40 times; the girls more than five times each.
Cutler’s family was said to not be doing well.
“They are taking it hard, really hard,” her uncle, James Mathis, told WABC-TV.
Cutler had been placed in the hotel by the New York Department of Homeless Services on Dec. 6 last year, city officials said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the attack that the other 28 families at the hotel were being relocated and it would no longer be used, and that other hotels used for homeless services would be given access to free 24-hour security.
About 2,600 homeless New Yorkers, including 637 children, stay in 41 hotels citywide for an average of about two weeks while officials determine whether they can be placed more permanently placed in other city facilities, officials said.
It was the third stabbing death at a homeless shelter in several weeks, prompting the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to send city officials a letter demanding “immediate action” to protect residents.
“This is the third incident of horrific violence in one of your facilities in less than a month,” executive director Sharon Devine wrote. “We expect and demand that you take immediate action to protect shelter residents.”
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
RSS