QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) — The teen accused of brutally stabbing a mother of three on a Queens bus stop tried to flee the country after the attack, authorities said.
Luis Emmanuel Valencia Ponce, 18, was spotted at the TSA checkpoint in Terminal 1 at John F. Kennedy Airport on Monday and later linked to the stabbing through an NYPD alert, according to the Port Authority Police Department.
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Ponce is accused of repeatedly stabbing Lisette Ramales, 29, after ambushing her at a bus stop near 23rd Avenue and 94th Street in East Elmhurst at around 6:15 a.m. Monday, prosecutors said. The bloody knife was found at the scene.
The woman suffered a punctured lung and four stab wounds that needed 11 stitches in the gruesome, unprovoked attack, authorities said.
“I’m in pain…mostly my back and my chest,” she told PIX11 News from her hospital bed.
Ramales said she was attacked while walking to work.
“I was about to cross the street and felt a little push, and he stabbed me twice,” she said. “I screamed, and when I screamed, he turned around and stabbed me another two times.”
Police are searching for a man accused of stabbing a woman multiple times at an intersection in Queens on Monday morning (Credit: NYPD)
Surveillance video shows Ramales stumbling across the street after the attack. She said a man walking his dog called the police as she cried out for help.
Ponce fled the scene and was allegedly trying to flee the country before he was spotted at JFK Airport the same day, officials said.
He was taken to the hospital for evaluation and was arrested on Thursday after his father urged him to turn himself in after seeing the suspect’s face splashed all over the news, according to officials and sources.
Ponce was arraigned on charges of attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon, prosecutors said.
He pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail, according to court records.
“The random and senseless nature of this attack is deeply unsettling to every New Yorker. As alleged, this defendant followed a 30-year-old woman before stabbing her multiple times without any prior interaction. This was a calculated act of violence, and my prosecutors will aggressively seek justice for
the victim of this unprovoked stabbing,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Ponce’s attorney could not immediately be reached.
Mira Wassef is an award-winning reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She joined the PIX11 News digital team in 2022. See more of her work here.
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