Accused NYC subway slasher held without bail — while own kin call him ‘crazy’
The accused Manhattan maniac charged with attacking three women during a bloody subway slashing spree over the weekend was ordered held without bail Wednesday — as his own aunt called him “crazy.”
But prosecutors seemed to suggest that Kemal Rideout 28, may have been sane enough to try to skip town with his mom while on the lam after the Sunday afternoon attacks.
Rideout was busted two days after the attacks after getting kicked off a bus in Harlem for trying to beat the fare — lugging a red back stuffed with clothing including clean underwear and toiletries, authorities said.
“This denotes to law enforcement that the defendant could be making efforts to leave the jurisdiction which is why he had clean clothing, boarding a bus rather than a train which is part of the reason why we’re concerned he is a flight risk,” Assistant District Attorney Bernard Eyth said in Manhattan Criminal Court, where Rideout was arraigned on three counts of felony assault.
Manhattan prosecutors also revealed new details about the attacks, which left the unsuspecting victims with gashes in their legs — one so severe that a tourniquet had to be used before she was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, police and sources said.
Another victim required 48 stitches to close the wound and the third 19 stitches.
One of the women told cops that after she was cut, “she turned around and saw a male suspect standing behind her holding what appeared to be a glass in his hand,” according to a criminal complaint.
Another victim, a 28-year-old straphanger whose name is being withheld by The Post, shot grisly video just seconds after the attack — and pursued the maniac into another car while pleading for help.
The woman is heard sobbing, “call 911” and “pull the emergency brake” while other commuters stare, even as her left leg is gushing blood, the video shows.
“He’s crazy,” Rideout’s aunt said after her nephew’s arraignment. “What they said in court — he’s like that.
“I didn’t know it was all this, though,” she added. “I knew about his past, but this is all new to me.”
Eyth said at the proceeding, “This is simply a culmination of escalating violence towards women and psychological issues.”
Rideout’s lawyer now wants a psychiatric evaluation for her client, who has been able to claim he wasn’t responsible for four previous crimes because of mental disease or defect, according to authorities and sources.
Rideout’s prior cases date to 2008 in upstate New York and include assault, attempted rape, forcible touching and criminal mischief, according to the sources.
“I believe that based on the psychiatric history of my client, it is appropriate for a psychiatrist, a mental health specialist, to evaluate my client and therefore determine whether in fact, he is fit or unfit,” defense lawyer Naima Gregory said.
“As he stands here today, I do not know whether or not he is fit or unfit,” Gregory told the judge.
Gregory also argued that Rideout wasn’t fleeing cops when he tried to hop on the bus — but rather was being sent to Mount Siani Hospital by his mother to get help.
“That was the reason he was on the bus,” she said. “It has nothing to do with a flight risk, it has nothing to do with him attempting to evade the police in any way.”
His mother declined to comment as she left court Wednesday.
