Man Accused of Stabbing Teen Girls at Grand Central Had History of Arrests

The man accused of stabbing two teenage girls at Grand Central Station on Christmas Day after shouting anti-white comments had a history of arrests and erratic behavior, according to media reports. 

Steven Hutcherson, 36, has been charged with two counts of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and first-degree attempted assault, all as hate crimes. He’s also been charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. 

He allegedly stabbed two girls, aged 14 and 16, visitors from Paraguay who were sitting with their parents at an eatery inside the train station at around 11:30 a.m. Monday. 

According to the criminal complaint, an employee of the cafe asked Hutcherson to leave the cafe, to which he replied, “I’ll leave, I don’t want the white man to get at you.” 

He then told a different employee, “I want to sit with the crackers.” After being seated by the second employee, Hutcherson allegedly walked over to the table with the teens, took out a knife from his back pocket and stabbed the 16-year-old in the back and the 14-year-old in the leg. 

The girls survived but suffered a collapsed lung and a puncture wound, respectively. 

Hutcherson, who also goes by the name Esteban Esono-Asue, has been arrested and called the police to file complaints over a dozen times in the last year, according to the New York Times. 

His ex-girlfriend, Charisma Knight, 37, told the paper she filed a restraining order against him and called police seven times to report his behavior; he also had a protection order against her. Knight said Hutcherson threatened her mother with a knife in May and brought a gun into their building in July. 

Some of the incidents involving Hutcherson were recent. 

In November, he was charged with assault and harassment for threatening a man, and in December someone called police to report that Hutcherson was acting erratically. 

Hutcherson has also reported alleged assaults and threats to his life to authorities. 

Knight told the Times she told police Hutcherson had mental health problems. 

She said had he been apprehended sooner, the teenage girls would have been “protected.” 

“They wouldn’t have had to go through that because he would have been incarcerated or in a mental institution, where he’s actually getting the help that he needs until he’s able to be released to society.”

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