The madman taken into custody for an alleged stabbing spree in Queens over the past two weeks was identified as a 27-year-old hospital employee from the same borough, according to law enforcement sources.
Jermain Rigueur — who reportedly laughed in one victim’s face after knifing them — was captured Wednesday after the NYPD began a frantic manhunt for the alleged stabber who cops say randomly targeted at least five victims in the World’s Borough.
Rigueur, who lives in Queens, works as a greeter at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, sources said.
No charges had been filed against him as of early Thursday.
The five victims were all left wounded and bleeding when Rigueur allegedly plunged a hunting knife into them, police said.
The string of random attacks started on Jan. 8 when a 61-year-old grandfather was knifed in the back as he walked to the laundromat that evening. After the perp stabbed him from behind, he turned and smiled at him as he walked away, the victim told The Post.
Then this week, 34-year-old Shaneka Anderson was stabbed as she walked home just after midnight Tuesday from her job with the TSA at LaGuardia Airport.
The next three victims were knifed Wednesday morning, leading cops to alert the media as they began their search for the serial stabber.
The NYPD sounded the alarm at a press conference the same day and blasted out images of the suspect before it took Rigueur into custody that night.
“We have an unidentified individual who is walking around the street randomly stabbing people with a hunting knife,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell warned earlier Wednesday.
Police Commissioner Edward Caban called the suspect “armed and dangerous.”
On top of the five slashings, police are probing whether the same guy attacked a man Wednesday on a Brooklyn subway platform.
Before the break in the case, community members were left on edge.
“I’ve never been nervous around here before but now I am,” said Raymond Coombs, who lives near 134th Avenue and Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, where two victims were attacked Wednesday morning.
