A homeless offender who senselessly stabbed a tourist who was walking with his teenage daughter near Times Square over the weekend has been charged with assault with serious bodily injury, police announced Monday.
Cyril Destin, 62, faces misdemeanor charges of second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon in connection with a video of a 36-year-old Pennsylvania woman being stabbed on West 43rd Street. He was indicted. Police said it happened Saturday evening in the area of Street and Eighth Avenue.
Shocking video of the unprovoked attack shows Destin using a walker to leave the Port Gourmet Deli on the corner and wander outside the storefront, then suspecting Destin in front of his teenage daughter and another woman. The footage shows him attacking the victim, who was not carrying a knife, with a large knife.
The three women were seen backing away from Destin, who then quietly returned to his seat outside the storefront with a displayed knife in his lap.
About two minutes later, two officers approach Destin, make him drop the knife, and handcuff him, the video shows.
The injured tourist was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for a stab wound to the chest.
Destin, who lives in a shelter across the street from the deli, has been arrested 14 times in the past 20 years, with his most recent arrest on July 30, 2022, on suspicion of criminal activity, according to law enforcement officials. was arrested.
Officials said his rap sheet dates back 20 years and includes arrests for menacing, petty theft, possession of stolen property, trespassing and theft of services.
Destin also has an extensive history of being an “emotionally disturbed person,” including exhibiting erratic and sometimes destructive behavior at the homeless shelter where he stayed, police said.
According to officials, the suspect is suspected of throwing a chair halfway through the window of the evacuation shelter in December last year, breaking the glass.
Sources said authorities had to force him to undergo treatment at Bellevue because he did not go voluntarily.
Officials say in April 2022, he berated and verbally threatened staff and responding officers.
And in December 2019, he was sitting in the cold with swollen legs when he reported having hallucinations, officials said.
He was taken to Bellevue for treatment.
Destin’s arraignment in connection with Saturday’s attack was postponed until Monday.
