The sister of a construction worker who was stabbed and killed on Monday in what police are calling a spree of attacks in Manhattan is demanding justice for her brother — and urging city officials to do whatever it takes to keep the alleged perpetrator behind bars.
“He died working, and we just want justice,” said Vertha Landi, the sister of 36-year-old Angel Lata Landi, who police said was the first victim in a string of stabbings. “The city should take responsibility for the disaster we’ve been left with.”
The alleged spree, which NYPD officials said was the work of one person acting alone, left three New Yorkers dead and the city reeling to make sense of the violence. Police arrested 51-year-old Ramon Rivera on 42nd Street and charged him with murder in connection to all three killings. Police said all of the victims were strangers to Rivera, an apparent resident of a men’s shelter near Bellevue Hospital, and that his attacks were unprovoked.
At Rivera's arraignment on Tuesday afternoon, Judge Janet McDonnell held him without bail until he is potentially indicted by a grand jury, and pending an extradition hearing for open warrants related to three alleged burglaries in Hudson County, New Jersey. Details on the New Jersey warrant were not immediately available. Through his lawyer, Rivera, who was dressed in a white jail jumpsuit, declined to enter a plea until an mental health evaluation is complete.
The incidents shocked residents and raised questions about how Rivera – who has a long arrest record in New York and several other states, according to police – had been allowed to wreak havoc on the streets after serving time in jail for a violent incident earlier this year. However McDonnell, the arraignment judge, said bail was never an option for his other charges. She said the judge on Rivera's other charges imposed supervised release, the maxim restriction allowed by law.
Angel Landi was attacked around 8:20 a.m. on Monday outside a construction site where he was working on West 19th Street and 10th Avenue in Chelsea, police said. First responders found him stabbed multiple times in the abdomen, and he was pronounced dead at Bellevue.
Angel Landi pictured with his dog Jack in a photo posted on social media and verified by Landi's family friend Walter Siche.
Two hours later and about two miles away, police say, Rivera stabbed a 67-year-old man, whom police identified as Chang Wang, multiple times in the abdomen while he was fishing along the East River near East 30th Street and the FDR Drive. Wang was also pronounced dead at Bellevue, officials said.
Half an hour later, at 10:55 a.m., police report they got a 911 call about a third victim: 36-year-old Wilma Augustin, whom they say Rivera had stabbed in the chest and left arm at East 42nd Street and First Avenue. She was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she died, police said.
Asked about the stabbings, Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday defended his administration's attempt to address mental health issues among homeless New Yorkers. He pointed to his efforts to order police and emergency responders to transport those presumed to be mentally ill to hospitals, and he blamed those who tried to hamper the directive, which would require some reforms to state regulations.
"Everybody said I was inhumane, that we just want to institutionalize people," Adams told reporters at City Hall. "This is a result of not taking actions and ignoring people who need help."
According to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Rivera was arrested for two burglaries last December and landed behind bars on Feb. 19 when he couldn’t make bail. He was later charged with assaulting a correction officer in the Bellevue prison ward, the office said.
In August, Rivera pleaded guilty to the burglary charges, according to the DA’s office, and was sentenced to a year in jail. He also pleaded guilty to the attempted assault charges from the incident with the correction officer, for which he was sentenced to 90 days concurrent with his previous sentence.
Rivera was released from custody on Oct. 17, “pursuant to [Department of Correction] practice to release defendants after serving two-thirds of their city sentence,” a spokesperson for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said. Rivera has another open case on charges that he shoplifted a ceramic bowl from a store in Dec. 2023, according to a criminal complaint.
At a press conference on Monday, city officials, including Adams, alluded to Rivera having a history of mental health issues, but did not elaborate on the specifics.
"It is a clear example of a criminal justice system and mental health system that continues to fail New Yorkers," Adams said. “There's some real questions that we need to look at on why he was on the street and he has some severe mental health issues that should have been examined.”
Legal Aid, which represents Rivera, declined comment.
Vertha Landi (left) and her family friend Walter Siche (right) called for justice for Angel Landi outside a Manhattan courthouse on Nov. 19, 2024.
Police said Rivera had recently been living at the Bellevue Men’s Shelter on East 30th Street, just a block away from Bellevue Hospital – and across the street from where he allegedly attacked his second victim while that person was fishing.
“He didn’t seem erratic or violent. I would see him and he would keep moving,” said Christopher Garcia, who lives at the same shelter and said he recognized photos of Rivera. “He'd just walk off, do his thing.”
Garcia said it was puzzling how Rivera would have had the two large knives he allegedly used in the stabbing.
“You have to go through [metal] detectors,” he said. “There's no way that these officers are going to allow you to have anything sharp. It's not going to happen. No glass bottles, nothing like that.”
A small white candle with a fishing hook had been placed on the pier overlooking the East River where police said the 67-year-old man was killed. Reporters tried several Manhattan addresses listed for the man but did not find anybody who knew him well.
On Tuesday outside the homeless shelter at a Midtown address police gave for Wilma Augustin, several female residents said they’d seen her around the facility but did not know her personally.
Vertha Landi and Angel Landi's other loved ones said they hoped Rivera would not be allowed back onto the streets.
“He was sick, this person killed my brother and then went and killed two other people,” she said tearfully in Spanish. “I hope the mayor doesn’t let him out, that he works together with other [officials] to keep him detained and not let him leave.”
Vertha Landi said her brother was born in Ecuador and came to the United States 20 years ago to work and save up money. He was also taking care of his nephew, who was left alone when his mother – their other sister – died.
“This news is devastating, because it left us with a huge hole,” she said. “He didn’t have the right to take my brother's life.”
Elizabeth Kim contributed reporting.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the the location where Rivera was arrested. This story has also been updated with additional information.
