Man charged with hate crimes in stabbing of 2 teen girls at NYC’s Grand Central Terminal
By Jeff Winter and Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — A 36-year-old man accused of stabbing two teenage girls in New York’s Grand Central Terminal on Christmas morning and making derogatory comments about White people has been charged with several hate crimes, according to a criminal complaint.
The teens, 14 and 16, were attacked in Grand Central’s dining concourse on Monday at about 11:25 a.m. They were transported to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesperson.
MTA police officers responded to the attack and arrested the suspect. The man has been arrested at least a dozen times before, the latest being in November for criminal possession of a weapon for carrying a knife, according to a law enforcement source.
Esteban Esono-Asue, who also goes by Steven Hutcherson, was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, two counts of assault as a hate crime, one count of attempted assault as a hate crime and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, the complaint states.
The incident began in the train station’s dining area when the man approached a dining employee and, after being asked to leave, said in essence, “I’ll leave, I don’t want the white man to get at you,” according to the complaint.
A second dining employee said she went to give the man a seat, and he said in essence, “I don’t want to sit with the black people. I want to sit with the crackers,” the complaint states.
Shortly after sitting and being given water, the man walked over to a table where a “family of individuals who appeared to be white were seated,” the complaint states. He took out a knife and stabbed the 16-year-old in the back, and as the family tried to get away, he stabbed the 14-year-old in the leg, according to the complaint.
The teen who was stabbed in the back suffered a collapsed lung, while the younger girl had a puncture wound in her thigh, the complaint states. The teens are sisters who were visiting from South America, CNN affiliate WABC reported.
The suspect was ordered held at the request of prosecutors, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The Manhattan DA’s office said he was represented by an attorney for the Legal Aid Society, which declined to comment.
There have been several high-profile attacks in New York City train stations and on subways in the past few years. Last year, Mayor Eric Adams increased police patrols underground to try to combat crime in the subway system, part of his attempt to calm fears about riding public transit.
“Any time you have incidents in these high‑profile locations it sends the feeling of, you know, people don’t feel safe,” Adams said of the stabbing at a news conference Tuesday. “And that’s why we have to make sure we, you know, zero in, make the arrest as soon as possible and make sure we get those repeated offenders off our streets.”
An MTA Police Department spokesperson called the stabbing a “rare occurrence” in Grand Central.
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CNN’s Mark Morales contributed to this report.
