Crime & Safety
Ditmas Park Slashing Suspect Arrested in New Jersey
Gregory Alfred was caught this weekend at a relative's house in Sayreville, NJ, police say.
Pictured: Gregory Alfred. Image courtesy of the NYPD
UPDATE, Tuesday, 1 p.m.: Brooklyn Slasher Attacked Woman Because She Was White, Police Say
DITMAS PARK, BROOKLYN — Police in Sayreville, New Jersey, have arrested the man believed to have slashed a woman in Ditmas Park on March 10.
Gregory Alfred, 25, was arrested without incident Saturday — the same day local police circulated a wanted poster with Alfred's photo — at the home of a Sayreville relative, according to local police spokesman Lt. Daniel Plumacker.
Alfred was sleeping at the house when the relative contacted police and informed them of his location, Plumacker said. As of Monday afternoon, Alfred was being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick, NJ, and was awaiting extradition to New York.
CAUGHT!!!! We can all rest easy. Gregory Alfred was apprehended for Beverly Rd slashing thanks to gr8 work by us and YOU.
— NYPD 70th Precinct (@NYPD70Pct) March 20, 2016
Police believe Alfred cut the neck of a 53-year-old woman at 1316 Beverly Road in central Ditmas Park on March 10, according to the NYPD.
That morning around 9:45 a.m., a man now suspected to be Alfred approached his victim from behind as she was walking eastbound on Beverly between Argyle and Rugby and slashed her in the neck with a knife.
The suspect wore an American flag bandanna over his mouth and nose during the slashing, police said.
The victim, identified in news reports as Jannina Popko, was taken Maimonides Medical Center on 10th Avenue in Borough Park, where she was treated and released, police said.
Popko spoke to reporters after she was released from the hospital on March 11.
“It’s terrible,” Popko said. “I’m very lucky and very grateful.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters the attack appeared to be random.
An unidentified passerby who witnessed the slashing used her own shirt to suppress the bleeding, according to CBS.
“She said she was walking down the street on the phone and a gentleman came up from behind her and cut her in the neck and ran off,” the witness said. “We kept pressure on her neck until they came and tried to keep her calm.”
Video from the incident, uploaded by CBS, reportedly showed the suspect fleeing down Argyle Road.
With additional reporting by Chris Neely
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