The suspected madman behind a fatal stabbing in Manhattan Monday has a long criminal history — and had been released from Rikers Island just a month before the terrifying attacks, The Post has learned.
Ramon Rivera, 51, identified by sources as the person of interest in the massacre, was released from prison on October 17 on a prison term for a string of recent burglary and assault convictions after spending most of this year behind the spent time behind bars, sources said. .
The release stunned Mayor Eric Adams, who said NYPD investigators were looking into how a career criminal with a history of mental illness could walk free despite his recent convictions.
“We are still reviewing his file, but there is a real question as to why he was on the street,” he said.
Court records show that Rivera was arrested again on grand larceny charges on the day of his release after prosecutors said he stole a nearly $1,500 acrylic bowl from the luxurious Jonathan Adler store in Tribeca in December 2023.
Prosecutors in Manhattan pushed for bail, and a judge ordered him released on non-monetary conditions ahead of a Dec. 4 hearing, records show.
Sources revealed that Rivera has at least eight prior arrests in New York City, a history of mental health issues and years of police raids in several states.
Many details about Rivera’s criminal record remained unclear until Monday evening, but the broad strokes paint a portrait of a troubled, sometimes violent man who lived outside the law for decades.
Rivera’s last stint behind bars began on Feb. 19, when NYPD officers arrested him in connection with a pattern of burglaries in Manhattan, sources said.
The burglaries date back to December 2023, when a thief smashed glass doors and windows of bodegas and smoke shops to steal thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes, vapes and lighters, according to sources.
Rivera remained in custody on Rikers Island for months as prosecutors combined the burglary counts into one indictment, sources said.
In May, Rivera spent several days in the psychiatric unit at Bellevue Hospital, where authorities said he assaulted a corrections officer, the sources said.
In August, he had pleaded guilty to burglary charges and was sentenced to 364 days in prison, sources said. The following month, he pleaded guilty to assaulting the corrections officer, earning a 90-day prison sentence to be served concurrently with his burglary sentence, according to sources.
Rivera was eventually released after serving three-quarters or nine months of his main sentence, sources said.
Rivera’s run-ins with NYPD officers also included two mental health incidents in November and December 2023, sources said.
While the NYPD was monitoring Rivera as a burglary suspect, police in Union City, New Jersey, arrested him in January as a fugitive from justice as well as a theft suspect, sources said.
According to the sources, Hoboken police arrested him around that time on two counts of criminal mischief.
Rivera also has a criminal record in several other states.
He was also arrested in 2017 in an assault case in Cleveland, Ohio, sources said. Florida authorities had arrested him several times as early as 2003 on charges ranging from domestic violence to soliciting prostitutes to driving under the influence, sources said.
