Beverley Road Slasher Had Been Hospitalized For Mental Illness
Gregory Alfred, who was arrested in connection with the March 10th slashing of a woman on Beverley Road, had been previously hospitalized for mental illness, according to news reports.
Alfred, 25, who last lived at Clarendon Road and East 28th Street, reportedly spent at least three months in the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center last year. He was arrested Saturday night at his mother’s home in New Jersey.
Announced yesterday, the charges against Alfred include attempted murder 2 (hate crime); attempted felony assault (hate crime)- 2 counts; felony assault (hate crime); and criminal possession of a weapon.
Alfred reportedly told police that he slashed his 53-year-old victim, Jannina Popko, “because she was white.” At a press conference yesterday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said that Alfred had “20 priors,” which included “a lot of assaults for punching people,” according to Patch.
Alfred was identified through a fingerprint left on Popko’s purse, Boyce stated.
The Daily News reports that Alfred was arrested on a trespassing charge over a year ago. He was deemed unfit to stand trial, and was sent to Kingsboro Psychiatric Center for the maximum stay allowed, 90 days.
Alfred actually agreed to continue his stay voluntarily, the News reports, but then allegedly assaulted another patient and a nurse. After two months at a maximum-security facility for the criminally insane, Alfred was set free because witnesses “couldn’t or wouldn’t cooperate” with prosecutors during his trial.
Four months later, the News says, he stalked and attacked Popko on Beverley Road.
In related news, Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD announced yesterday that the NYPD is heightening its focus on areas of the city where slashings and stabbings seem concentrated.
Police Commissioner Bratton stated that knife and blade attacks have increased from 750 at this point in 2015, to 916 at the same point this year, according to Gothamist.
But, Bratton stressed, 60 percent of those attacks occurred indoors, and 30 percent were deemed to be instances of domestic violence.