Police arrested a suspect in the shocking stabbing deaths of a 6-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl in Brooklyn. A 6-year-old girl was critically wounded in one of the attacks.
Daniel St. Hubert was taken into custody around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in Queens, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The NY Times reports police linked DNA found on the knife used in the stabbings of the 2 children.
On Wednesday afternoon, Robert K. Boyce, the chief of detectives, called the preliminary DNA a “significant breakthrough” in the three day manhunt for the killer.
Boyce said Hubert, 27, has nine prior arrests and was paroled on May 23 after being held on domestic assault charges.
Prince Joshua Avitto, 6, was stabbed to death and Mikayla Capers, 7, suffered knife wounds to her chest and arms in the June 1 attacks. Her mother called the wounds to the child’s arms “defensive wounds.”
Police say the children were on their way to Prince’s apartment for frozen Icees. A man followed them onto the elevator in Prince’s building.
The children were talking loudly and the man reportedly told them to shut up. Mikayla stopped talking but the lively Prince continued chatting. The man viciously stabbed the boy in the neck and chest then set upon Mikayla, who fought for her life in the confined space.
When the elevator doors opened Mikayla managed to escape. The man pursued her but gave up the chase and fled the scene.
Prince was pronounced dead at the same Manhattan hospital where Mikayla is recovering from her injuries.
Police believe an earlier stabbing death of a teenager is related to Sunday’s attack.
On May 30, a taxi driver found Tanaya Copeland, 18, bleeding and unconscious in the street just a few blocks away from the public housing project where the children were stabbed.
A knife found near Copeland’s body is the same type of knife used to stab the children: an eight-inch blade with “Dura Edge by Imperial Knife” written on the side, police said.
Copeland was stabbed multiple times in the torso. Grainy surveillance video shows a husky man running from the scene.
A $62,000 reward was being offered for information leading to the capture of the killer.
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