Columbia Student Killed In Upper Manhattan Stabbing Spree: Police

HARLEM, NY — A man randomly stabbed two people in Harlem and Morningside Heights late Thursday, killing a Columbia University student and reportedly injuring a tourist, according to police and news reports.

The spree began just before 11 p.m., when a 911 caller reported a man being stabbed on West 123rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem. Police found the victim, a 30-year-old man, with a stab wound to the abdomen.

He was rushed to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, but could not be saved. The president of Columbia University later identified the victim as Davide Giri, a graduate student at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Giri lived just two blocks away, police said. A native of Italy, he had come to Columbia to earn his PhD, and had won a teaching award after being nominated by his students, according to Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

Minutes later, police responding to the first stabbing discovered a second, 27-year-old man who had been stabbed on West 110th Street, near the southern edge of Morningside Park. Reportedly a tourist, the man was hospitalized in stable condition with a stab wound to the torso, according to the Daily News.

While canvassing the area, police officers found a 25-year-old man fitting the suspect's description inside Central Park, near West 104th Street. After threatening a third, 29-year-old man inside that park, he was taken into custody, and police recovered a knife at the scene.

Charges are pending against the suspect, who was out on parole from a gang assault conviction, the Daily News reported. Police believe he made his way south through Morningside Park following the first stabbing uptown.

The tragedy is sure to unnerve the Columbia area, which is still recovering from the 2019 killing of Tessa Majors, an 18-year-old Barnard student, inside Morningside Park. Earlier this year, community leaders expressed optimism that the park had turned a corner in terms of safety, noting that reports of crimes inside Morningside Park had dropped significantly this year compared to 2019.

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