News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Feb. 17, 2021: A Jamaican immigrant has been identified as one of the victims of a horrific New York subway killing spree over the weekend.
The Jamaica-born victim, according to the New York Post, is 44-year-old Claudine Roberts. She was homeless on the street because of mental illness and was in and out of the hospital, her father, Winston Roberts, 73, told the paper.
“It breaks my heart,” Roberts was quoted as saying. “She came here well-dressed on Wednesday. She was in pink shoes and a green jacket. Now she is in the morgue.”
Ms. Roberts had reportedly recently gotten out of Bellevue Hospital amid her ongoing mental issues about a week ago and was riding the A train when she was killed by the crazed homeless man early Saturday in a random slashing spree. That spree also left an apparently homeless male straphanger dead and two more riders wounded, the NYPD said.
Police said Ms. Roberts was found dead in a pool of blood aboard an A train at the 207th Street station in Inwood in Manhattan shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday.
The body of the other fatal victim, a 57-year-old man, was found aboard the train at the Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway, Queens, around 11:30 p.m. Friday.
Two other men were wounded in the attacks along the A line.
The suspected killer was caught Sunday. He has been identified as Rigoberto Lopez, 21, who lives at a Boerum Hill homeless shelter in Brooklyn, NY. Lopez has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, officials said.
Ms. Roberts had migrated from Jamaica when she was 7. She began to suffer from mental illness as a teen.
Her father said he learned of his youngest daughter’s death from cops.
“The police came and told me yesterday,” he said, adding one officer — “said they stabbed her.”
“My [other] daughter is just bawling and bawling,” the dad told the Post. “I loved my daughter. “I tried to do the best for her.”
