The New York City Police Chief, Jessica Tisch, stated that the man shot dead this morning in the New York subway after stabbing three people at the bustling Grand Central subway station claimed to be Lucifer and committed a 'random act of violence.' At a press conference, the police official identified the subject as 44-year-old Anthony Griffin, who had three prior arrests 'but no history of mental disturbance,' she detailed, pointing to mental health as the motive for the attack. Griffin stabbed three victims, aged 65 to 84, with a machete on a station platform shortly before 10 a.m., and when police approached him shortly after, 'he was behaving erratically and repeating that he was Lucifer,' Tisch disclosed. Police gave him 'at least 20 orders to drop' the machete and even offered help, but he approached brandishing the weapon and remained a 'threat,' which prompted an officer to shoot him twice with a fatal outcome, she recounted. 'Random acts of violence scare everyone, anyone can be a victim (…) and that's why we have recently increased our presence in the transit system,' said the Police Chief, who quantified the 175 additional agents deployed in the subway. The three victims were taken to a nearby hospital but their lives are not in danger, specified Tisch. This concerns an 84-year-old man with head and face injuries, another 65-year-old man with similar injuries and a skull fracture, and a 70-year-old woman with shoulder injuries, according to authorities and local media. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the state governor, Kathy Hochul, echoed the event and thanked the Corps for its quick response, also indicating that an internal investigation of the incident, recorded by the officers' body cameras, will be conducted.
