Slasher attacks Van Cortlandt Park jogger

On the heels of one alleged slasher’s arrest, police are looking for suspects in the March 22 stabbing of a jogger at Van Cortlandt Park.

Authorities arrested Marble Hill resident Nayiberto Lopez, 47, for allegedly slashing three people at the El Economico Restaurant at 5589 Broadway two days after his alleged crime on March 20. They are still looking for two males who attacked Joel Rosario, 29, while he was at Van Cortlandt Park near the dog run that is roughly parallel with West 259th Street.

Mr. Rosario told police he was jogging at the park at about 7:33 p.m. when two males approached him. He said he felt like he was punched in the face before realizing he had been stabbed.

There was no information on whether the suspects attempted to rob the victim.

Police described one of the attackers as a black male, about 6 feet tall in his 20s with a small afro; he was reported as wearing a reddish, hooded sweatshirt. There was no description of the second assailant.

Mr. Rosario, whom police described as a frequent jogger at Vannie, reportedly declined to go to a hospital. 

The pair of slashings in the northwest Bronx came as a streak of citywide slashing incidents has been making headlines. On Jan. 4, a customer fatally stabbed McDonald’s manager Adam Garcia at the 5765 Broadway eatery. There have been a number of other, non-fatal incidents in Manhattan, as well.

Capt. Terence O’Toole, the commanding officer of the 50th Precinct, said while previous yearly averages for the city came to about 700 slashings, 2016 is on track to see about 100 more incidents.

“It is becoming a media issue and they are becoming pretty horrific,” he added.

He said that most slashings happen between two people who know each another, and there were about 16 random incidents citywide last year. 

“At El Economico, [Mr. Lopez] was a patron who was thrown out because he was intoxicated, the bar did what they were supposed to do and didn’t serve him any more but he came back with the knife,” Capt. O’Toole said. “He slashed the owner, a patron and he also slashed an acquaintance — let’s put it like that — who was trying to restrain him.

“We don’t know where the other two individuals came from,” he said of the March 22 attack at Van Cortlandt Park. “They just said something to him and punched him in the face, but it appears that from the way his face was cut that [one of the suspects] may have had some type of razor or sharp instrument in his hand.”

Capt. O’Toole said that he has recently evaluated crime at Van Cortlandt Park to determine whether the 1,146-acre area needs regular patrols, but found little crime there.

“Most of the crime that’s in the park is of the grand larceny type, where people leave their money or they leave a bag with a credit [card] in it. It’s lost for a few minutes or a few hours and then someone uses the credit card and then it becomes a grand larceny,” he said.

“The Parks Enforcement people don’t have that many assigned to Van Cortlandt,” Capt. O’Toole said of the Department of Parks and Recreation’s forces. “They just hired some more, but I don’t know what their turnover time is to get people into the parks. But I believe they have some in the pipeline.”

Capt. O’Toole added that the 50th Precinct works with the NYPD’s aerial units to survey the park from above for possible crimes at night.

“They fly over at night, use their infrared and if they see people, they will call us and we will go out there and issue them a summons,” he said. “You don’t get it every day because of weather conditions, but once or twice a week, at least.”

While police are still seeking Mr. Rosario’s attackers, Mr. Lopez is facing six counts of felony assault, three reckless endangerment charges, three counts of menacing and three of criminal possession of a weapon. The next scheduled court date for Mr. Lopez, whose residence was listed on West 225th Street, was Thursday, March 31.