The homeless woman accused of stabbing a California mom as she changed her baby inside a Macy\u2019s Herald Square bathroom told The Post \u201cvoices\u201d in her head ordered her to \u201ckill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt said that I had to go to Macy\u2019s and kill someone,\u201d Kerri Aherne said during an exclusive jailhouse interview Saturday.<\/p>\n
Aherne \u2013 who still had blood under her fingernails Saturday as she sat in the visitor\u2019s center of the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island, where she is being held on an attempted murder charge \u2013 described in chilling detail how the attack unfolded.<\/p>\n
Kerri Aherne was arrested and charged with attempted murder for the alleged attack at Macy\u2019s during the busy holiday season. James Keivom\/Pool\/ New York Post<\/p>\n
The 43-year-old former\u00a0home health aide\u00a0from Massachusetts took a green cab from her\u00a0transitional housing unit at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center<\/a>\u00a0to the famed department store, she said.<\/p>\n She\u00a0claimed\u00a0she\u00a0bought a smooth, foot-long kitchen knife on the 8th floor with\u00a0some of the\u00a0$150 she got from a social worker before she left the housing unit\u00a0\u2014 where she spent just a day, she said, before heading to Macy\u2019s.<\/p>\n Then, Aherne said, she went to the 7th floor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe voice said, \u2018Kill someone in the bathroom or you will die,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n Aherme was previously held at Manhattan Psychiatric Center following a year of treatment. James Keivom<\/p>\n She entered the bathroom and saw a woman changing a baby.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the latest on the NYC Macy\u2019s stabbing<\/p>\n \u201cI stabbed her in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe voice said, \u2018Kill someone in the bathroom or you will die,\u201d\u00a0she said. Desheania Andrews for Ny Post<\/p>\n The victim began \u201cscreaming for help. She was screaming for someone to call 911.<\/p>\n \u201cI was covered in blood,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Aherne recalled how others in the bathroom helped the victim, then recounted her time in a patrol car her arrest.<\/p>\n She\u00a0claimed\u00a0she\u00a0bought a smooth, foot-long kitchen knife on the 8th floor. Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post<\/p>\n She asked the police officer where she was going.<\/p>\n \u201cTo jail,\u201d the officer said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was relieved.\u00a0I don\u2019t want to go back to the hospital.\u00a0I\u2019m scared\u00a0of the hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She has heard voices\u00a0in her head since she was 6-years-old, said Aherne, who\u00a0also\u00a0faces assault, child endangerment and weapons possession charges.<\/p>\n A Macy\u2019s department store is seen decorated in Christmas decorations in Herald Square, Manhattan, New York City. Jimin Kim\/SOPA Images\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cI am being tortured by the government,\u201d she insisted. \u201cThey put words into my head. They told me that I had to kill or they would kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n Aherne apologized\u00a0to the victim \u2014\u00a0while again shifting blame.<\/p>\n \u201cI apologize. Is she okay? I know she had a little baby,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault. She should be upset with the government.<\/p>\n She has heard voices\u00a0in her head since she was 6-years-old, said Aherne. Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to hurt anyone. I don\u2019t want to kill anyone,\u201d Aherne said. \u201cIt\u2019s not me. It\u2019s the government\u2019s fault. They are telling me to do it and that\u2019s why I want to sue them.\u201d<\/p>\n The attack unfolded around 3:10 p.m. inside a seventh-floor bathroom at the Midtown flagship store, where the\u00a038-year-old tourist had taken her 10-month-old daughter to be changed<\/a>,\u00a0prosecutors said.<\/p>\n The baby was not hurt, and the mother was\u00a0able to fight off her attacker<\/a>\u00a0before help arrived, authorities said.<\/p>\n The alleged knife-wielding maniac has no prior arrests in the Big Apple. Desheania Andrews for Ny Post<\/p>\n