By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-04 15:01:02 | Updated at 2025-01-06 15:42:14
2 days ago
Police are searching for Jamar Banks in connection with two subway stabbings.
Obtained by The New York Post
A knife-wielding maniac with a history of mental illness and 53 prior arrests is wanted in connection with at least two stabbings in the subway this week, The Post has learned.
Cops searching for Jamar Banks were warned to use “extreme caution” when encountering him because he is believed to be armed with “a large knife,” according to a message sent to police officers and obtained by The Post.
Banks, 52, is known to frequent the No. 2 and No. 5 subway lines, authorities said in the message.
Surveillance video allegedly shows Banks with a large knife, cops said. Obtained by The New York PostHe’s being sought in connection with stabbings on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, according to the NYPD.
A surveillance photo allegedly shows Banks holding the knife in gloved hands.
“He has a very very lengthy arrest history,” a police source said. “It looks like he rides the rails back and forth.”
Banks is wanted for allegedly approaching a 31-year-old man from behind on a 2 train at the Union Square station in Manhattan on Wednesday and starting an argument, before stabbing him in the back and running away.
He’s also suspected of knifing an off-duty MTA cleaner in the back and armpit around 6 a.m. Thursday, after starting an argument with the victim on a northbound 5 train platform at the Pelham Bay station in the Bronx, police said.
The attacker fled after the stabbing.
Banks knifed an off-duty MTA cleaner at the Pelham Bay station. Robert MillerBoth victims were taken to hospitals in stable condition.
Banks’ rap sheet includes arrests for weapons possession, assault, criminal trespassing, turnstile jumping and petty larceny, the source said.
His last arrest was on Nov. 14 for petty larceny in the Bronx.
