The unassuming New York City hospital greeter charged Thursday with a string of random stabbings had no rap sheet or history of mental illness — leaving neighbors and cops trying to figure out what could have caused him to snap.
Jermain Rigueur, 27, a former Long Island resident who worked at Woodhull Hospital in Bedford–Stuyvesant, allegedly attacked a 61-year-old grandfather with a hunting knife on Jan. 8 — and then went after at least four more victims Tuesday and Wednesday before he was nabbed by cops.
“I can’t believe that. I wouldn’t think he would be capable of that,” said retired NYPD cop Cherise Broadus, who lives next-door to the raised ranch home in Wyandanch where Rigueur grew up.
“Jermain was always a very loving young man,” Broadus, 62, told The Post, saying she has known the suspect since he was a boy and watched him grow up.
“He was always very loving to me. When I lost my mother, he came up to me and gave me a big hug,” she continued.
“I never thought anything like that of him. I trusted him. He would watch my granddaughter.”
Police also have yet to figure out a motive for the chilling spree. Rigeur is accused of stabbing a woman in an unprovoked attack in Springfield Gardens just after midnight Tuesday, then stabbing two men in separate incidents Wednesday morning before he stabbed his fifth known victim after argument over seating in a bus.
“He didn’t indicate any reason for the attack,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a briefing Thursday.
“And based on our investigation, it just seems the only incident that he was provoked was the incident on the bus, where there was an argument and a dispute over a bus seat,” Kenny added, referring to the fifth stabbing, in which a 36-year-old man was wounded near Parsons Boulevard and Archer Avenue in Queens.
The others, including a possible sixth incident in Brooklyn, “were random,” Kenny said.
The chief said in that attack, the suspect was “pacing” before the attack.
“We have witnesses stating he was pacing the train car prior,” Kenny said. “He stood over the victim, and as the train doors opened up on Flushing Avene, he plunged the knife into his victim’s chest and simply just walked off the train.”
Police also said there was no pattern in the choice of victims — they included both men and women who were either black or Hispanic.
NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said the unprovoked attacks had cops out in force.
“A violent criminal is off our streets because of good old-fashioned police work,” he said. “Ultimately, it came down to basic detective work — chasing down leads, knocking on doors. It was about walking through neighborhoods and talking to people, interviewing witnesses and canvassing video.”
Police said the legwork paid off when detectives were able to track down surveillance camera footage that captured the suspect as he walked into the two-family home in Jamaica where he lived.
“The male was wearing the same clothing and sneakers from the stabbing incidents,” Kenny told reporters. “He was also carrying the same backpack and he was also wearing that distinctive lanyard around his neck.”
The Lanyard was Rigueur’s Woodhull Hospital ID, according to authorities.
Rigueur was charged with three counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault, one count of attempted assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
He was led out of the 113th Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs Thursday afternoon and is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal later in the evening.
He grew up in Suffolk County and only moved to the two-family home in Jamaica where he lived with roommates last year, friends and neighbors told The Post.
Rigueur took a job as a greeter at Woodhull in November, New York City Health and Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz said at Thursday’s press briefing.
Katz said a background check on Rigueur didn’t raise any red flags since he had no criminal history.
“He never worked independently at Woodhull,” Katz said. “He was still 100% being observed as part of his orientation. His job was greeting patients as they came in and directing them to the appropriate place.”
He said Rigueur has been placed on administrative leave.
He shared his two-family Queens home with roommates.
“I grew up in this neighborhood but I don’t know him,” one neighbor who only identified himself as Michelle said. “I’ve never seen him.”
Another neighbor, Lynae, called it scary that Rigueur had been living on the block.
“We think we’re safe but we’re not really safe,” she said. “We think that everyone is just ordinary, just a regular person, then you have somebody walking around with a hunting knife. It’s just like, ‘What?’
“I don’t feel safe anymore.”
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya