Authorities are currently searching for Jamar Banks, a 52-year-old man with a history of mental illness and 87 prior arrests, in connection with at least two subway stabbings this week. Banks, who is considered dangerous, is believed to be armed with “a large knife.” Police have been warned to approach him with “extreme caution,” as indicated in a message sent to officers.
Banks is known to frequent the No. 2 and No. 5 subway lines, according to the alert sent to law enforcement. He is being sought for two stabbings that occurred on January 1 and January 2, as confirmed by the NYPD.
Surveillance footage reportedly shows Banks holding a knife while wearing gloves, providing investigators with a visual lead in the case. “He has a very, very lengthy arrest history,” a police source remarked, adding, “It looks like he rides the rails back and forth.”
Banks is accused of approaching a 31-year-old man from behind on a No. 2 train at 14th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan on January 1, starting an argument before stabbing the man in the back and fleeing the scene. He is also suspected of stabbing an off-duty MTA cleaner on January 2 around 6 a.m., after an argument on the northbound 6 train platform at the Pelham Bay station in the Bronx. Authorities say Banks stabbed the victim in the back and armpit before escaping.
Both victims were taken to hospitals in stable condition. Banks’ criminal record includes numerous arrests for charges ranging from attempted murder to weapons possession, assault, criminal trespassing, and petty theft, police sources reported.
In a previous incident on October 19, 2022, Banks allegedly stabbed a man in the leg with a kitchen knife on a Manhattan subway. The 26-year-old victim told police that after he boarded the No. 2 train at Fulton Street, Banks, who had boarded at 72nd Street, tried to sit on his girlfriend’s lap. When the victim asked him to move, Banks allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the lower left leg. Responding officers applied a tourniquet, and the victim was taken to the hospital.
Banks was arrested on December 14, 2022, for the stabbing and charged with assault with intent to cause injury using a weapon. However, the status of the case is unclear at this time.
Banks has faced other serious charges in the past. In June 2015, he allegedly attacked a man who knocked on the door of a McDonald’s bathroom at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Police sources say Banks stabbed the man after he had asked whether the bathroom was occupied.
In 1997, Banks was charged with attempted murder after an incident in the Bronx. According to sources, Banks shot a man in the leg after the man bumped into him on East 226th Street. The victim stated that after the bump, he continued walking, only to be shot as he approached a store. At the time, Banks, then 24, faced multiple charges including attempted murder, assault with intent to cause serious injury, criminal use of a firearm, and criminal possession of a weapon.
{Matzav.com}