The knife-wielding maniac who allegedly stabbed two people to death on the subway last week is a well-known repeat offender with a violent past who has been arrested dozens of times, only to end up back on the streets. The Post found out.
Suspect Jamar Banks, who had a history of mental illness, had 54 arrests for shootings, stabbings, fare jumping and domestic violence, sources said.
He was arrested again by the NYPD's warrant unit on Sunday and charged with assault and weapons possession in the latest violent incident, police sources told the Post.
Officials said the suspect had undergone psychological testing at least once during his time in custody over the past four years, and police had warned him four times that he was considered suicidal and emotionally disturbed.
A frequent target of his misplaced anger was his uncle, who lived in the Bronx. Sources say Jamar Banks was arrested for 20 domestic incidents between 2004 and 2021.
He has also been included in the repeat traffic offender database five times since 2020 and has been arrested dozens of times for fare evasion since 1992, officials said. He is also featured in a number of arrests on drug charges, sources added.
Mr. Banks was arrested in January on suspicion of a Manhattan robbery that included various thefts and thefts, including stealing $222 worth of soap from Walgreens on Nov. 14 and stealing $580 worth of soap from a Walgreens on Oct. 30. The charges also include stealing a significant amount of mouthwash, officials added.
In early 2024, Banks allegedly stole soap and body wash from a Queens Walgreens in April. More than $2,100 worth of beauty products were sold at Bronx Walgreens in June. Later that month, two bottles of Reid and a container of Vaseline were purchased at a Bronx Walgreens.
He was also charged with resisting arrest in the final theft because he allegedly fought back when officers tried to arrest him, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the complaint, the officer hit the man with a stun gun and then locked him up.
Police said Banks, 52, was accused of stabbing a 31-year-old man on a train on the 2nd train at 14th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan late Sunday night after getting into an argument with the victim. He was arrested around the time.
Around 6 a.m. Thursday, he allegedly got into a new argument with an off-duty MTA janitor and stabbed the victim in the back and side with a knife on the northbound platform 6 at Pelham Bay Station in the Bronx, police said. There is.
The suspect fled after both stabbings. The two victims were taken to the hospital, where their condition is stable.
Before Sunday's arrest at the 219th Street Station in the Bronx, police said in an internal memo that they would be on “high alert” if they found the stabbing suspect, who was carrying a large knife when he was collared. ”.
The bank's history concerned authorities, the people said.
In October 2022, Banks allegedly stabbed a 26-year-old man in the leg with a kitchen knife as he tried to sit on his girlfriend's lap on a Manhattan subway train.
Officials said he was arrested on suspicion of assault in December of the same year, and authorities charged him with assault with intent to cause injury with a weapon.
Banks is accused of running out of a McDonald's restroom in downtown Manhattan in June 2015 and stabbing a man who had knocked on the door to see if anyone was inside, officials said.
And a few years earlier, in July 1997, Banks was charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting a man in the leg after bumping into him on East 226th Street in the Bronx.
Banks, 24, was charged with intent to murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to cause serious injury, first-degree criminal use of a firearm, and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
It was unclear Monday how those cases were resolved.
“He has a very long arrest history,” one law enforcement source told the Post. “He seems to be riding the rails back and forth.”
