
 
 Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams (Chris Robbins / Gothamist) 
 
 [UPDATE: The suspect, Daniel St. Hubert, was arrested shortly after the press conference. See the bottom of this post] In an evening press conference, the NYPD, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams gathered to announce the name of the suspect accused of stabbing two young children in the elevator of their NYCHA building in East New York. They implored the public to contact 1-800-577-TIPS if they have any information about Daniel St. Hubert or call 911 if they see him. "No one should approach him," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. 
 
 "The public is crucial here," Mayor de Blasio added, imploring New Yorkers to call in tips via phone or on Crime Stoppers' website. 
 
 "The human dynamic here is so deeply moving, so disturbing," he added. 
 
 Chief Boyce described St. Hubert as a 27-year-old black male who is 5'9" and 210 pounds and resides in East New York. He has nine prior arrests and has been on parole since May 23 for a domestic violence incident. Boyce emphasized that St. Hubert is considered "armed and dangerous." 
 
 "Right now we just have his violent nature,we don't know about his psychiatric history," Chief Boyce said. 
 
 St. Hubert has been charged with assaulting a police officer and assaulting a Correction officer, which is the reason for his current parole status. 
 
 On Sunday just before 6 p.m., the suspect stabbed Prince Joshua "P.J." Avitto, 6, and Mikayla Capers, 7, in a building elevator at the Boulevard Houses on Schenk Avenue. Both children, who were headed outside to get ices, were stabbed repeatedly. P.J. died at the hospital while Mikayala survivedshe is unable to speak, but she is responsive. 
 
 "Forensic evidence" at the crime scene provided the link to St. Hubert. "We've said nothing about DNA," Commissioner Bratton told a reporter who asked whether the suspect's DNA was recovered from the knife. 
 
 The officials also said that St. Hubert was scheduled to meet with his parole officer earlier today but did not materialize. 
 
 Stabbing suspect's tattoo says Aries. pic.twitter.com/NQSOHY6DJv — Tina Moore (@NYDNTinaMoore) June 5, 2014 
 
 While it's been reported that St. Hubert may be behind the Friday night fatal stabbing of Tanaya Grant Copeland, which was also in East New York's 75 Precinct, St. Hubert is only named as a suspect in the stabbings of the children, though Commissioner Bratton said St. Hubert has not been ruled out as a suspect in Copeland's death. 
 
 
 
 It's believed that St. Hubert changed his appearance and currently looks more like the photo on the left (Chris Robbins/Gothamist) 
 
 Commissioner Bratton said that they believe St. Hubert changed his appearance and shaved his head and facial hair, so he may resemble the photo on the left side of the poster. Mayor de Blasio said that P.J.'s parents just want St. Hubert to be arrested before he hurts anyone else, "I ask all New Yorkers to help in this investigation in any way you can. Do it for this grieving family, do it for all of us, so we can be safe." 
 
 When asked about his vow to add more officers in and around NYCHA buildings, the mayor said, "I'll say broadly, the Commissioner has already been making some substantial moves to reinforce some of the percents that need additional help and some of those are areas where there are lot of public housing developments." 
 
 The mayor added, "We're going to be working very closely with residents of public housing to keep them safe." 
 
 Commissioner Bratton indicated that when the current crop of NYPD recruits graduate in July, "there will be a significant additional compliment of officers going into the housing developments going into the summer months." 
 
 [UPDATE // 8:36 P.M.] The NYPD said they arrested St. Hubert in Queens. Per the release: "On June 4, 2014 shortly after 8 pm Daniel St. Hubert was apprehended by detectives in the vicinity of 145 Street and 133 Avenue in the confines of the 106 Pct." ||||| A cell phone trace and a DNA hit led cops to the Brooklyn butcher, sources said. 
 
 A citywide manhunt ended in Queens late Wednesday with the arrest of Daniel St. Hubert, the man suspected of fatally stabbing Prince Joshua (P.J.) Avitto, 6, and critically injuring his playmate, Mikayla Capers, 7. 
 
 “They got that bastard, and that bastard is going to hell,” said P.J.’s distraught mother, Aricka McClinton, 42. 
 
 McClinton burst into tears when she heard police had nailed their suspect. 
 
 “Prince said they were going to catch him. Last night my angel came to me and said, ‘Hold on, Mommy, they’re going to get him. Just hold on,’” she recounted. 
 
 Despite her grief, McClinton made sure to stop at the 75th Precinct stationhouse to give thanks. 
 
 “It feels like my baby can rest in peace,” she said, joining others from the neighborhood who celebrated outside the stationhouse. 
 
 Police arrested Daniel St. Hubert shortly after naming him the suspect Wednesday night. (Tina Moore/New York Daily News) 
 
 “Thank you, NYPD, thank you! God is good!" she cried out to the jubilant crowd. 
 
 Cops used St. Hubert’s cell phone number to hunt him down. They pinged it to within a few hundred feet, recognized him from a photo and then collared him just after 8 p.m. in the vicinity of 145th St. and 133rd Ave in South Ozone Park. 
 
 “When they tracked him down, everybody ran out of the different commands to go and capture this guy,” a police source said. The suspect had a knife on him when cops picked him up. 
 
 St. Hubert, 27, has a history of violence, serving time for assault and attempted murder, according to police. He was released on May 23. 
 
 “He’s a violent individual ... he’s assaulted a correction officer, he’s assaulted a police officer,” detectives said during a press conference Wednesday about 15 minutes before he was caught. 
 
 Mayor Bill de Blasio, who attended the press event with Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, had cautioned the public not to approach the armed and dangerous man. 
 
 Here's a look at Daniel St. Hubert's criminal history. (New York Daily News) 
 
 Police released his name along with several pictures, including one of a large tattoo of a satanic goat’s head with horns, etched under the word “Aries” that was on St. Hubert’s right forearm. 
 
 Investigators first unearthed his name after getting DNA from the steak knife used in the East New York attack. 
 
 Mikayla’s great-grandmother, Regenia Trevathan, said she was comfortable knowing St. Hubert’s fate was in the hands of the NYPD. 
 
 “I believe in the justice system and justice will be done,” she said. “I have faith in the NYPD. I’m angry but I put my faith in God, and I put my faith in the city,” she said. 
 
 P.J.’s dad, Nicholas Avitto, who lives in the Boulevard Houses where the children were stabbed on Sunday, said earlier that he told cops he believed the killer was a hulking homeless man “I used to see sleeping in my hallway.” 
 
 The NYPD had a task force in the neighborhood working around the clock to find St. Hubert, who had a $69,000 price on his head when he was nabbed. 
 
 NYPD detectives are seen awaiting a search warrant in front of the home of the mother of Daniel St. Hubert, who was arrested Wednesday night and is accused of stabbing both children. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News) 
 
 The bounty for the killer skyrocketed after the Western Beef supermarket chain kicked in another $50,000 to the existing reward money. 
 
 Standing near a makeshift shrine of flowers, balloons, signs and candles before St. Hubert was picked up, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams urged residents to keep their eyes open — and warned them not to take matters into their own hands. 
 
 “We want vigilance, not vigilantes,” said Adams. 
 
 St. Hubert is only wanted right now in relation to the stabbing of the two children Sunday, but police also suspect he might be linked to Friday’s fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Tanaya Grant Copeland four blocks away from the Boulevard Houses. 
 
 Police said the knives in the crimes were very similar. St. Hubert hasn’t been charged in Copelend’s murder. 
 
 Copeland’s grieving mother said teenagers should beware. 
 
 Nicholas Avitto (center), father of Prince Joshua Avitto, took his sons' backpack on a symbolic walk to school in Brooklyn on Wednesday. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News) A makeshift memorial for the children seen outside the Boulevard Houses on Wednesday. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News) Police secure the building where two children were stabbed on Sunday. 6-year-old P.J. Avitto died and 7-year-old Mikayla Capers remains in critical condition. 
 
 “The message I have to every young one out there is one message: be aware, be aware of your surroundings,” Rochelle Copeland said. 
 
 “A lot of young people walk around with their cellphones, not focusing on where they are going, and maybe in that one split second, if my daughter wasn't on her phone, maybe she'd have known that her assailant was there.” 
 
 With much of East New York on edge, local pols had also asked the FBI to help search for the killer. 
 
 P.J. and Mikayla were playing outside Sunday when they were told ices were waiting for them back in the building, police said. They were already in the elevator when the killer barged inside at 5:50 p.m., police said. 
 
 The rotund ripper stabbed both children with a steak knife somewhere between the first and fourth floors after telling them to “shut up,” police sources said. 
 
 When the elevator returned to the ground floor, the butcher fled, stumbling as he ran, police said. 
 
 Despite being stabbed 16 times, Mikayla somehow survived and was in critical condition at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia. 
 
 P.J. was found inside the blood-soaked compartment and died later at a local hospital. His parents are planning a Friday funeral. 
 
 There were no security cameras in the elevator and lobby of the building where the kids were attacked despite NYCHA earmarking $27 million for the security gear. 
 
 Community activist Tony Herbert, president of the National Action Network's East Brooklyn Chapter, said the entire borough was relieved to know a suspect had been caught. 
 
 "(We) can breathe a lot better now that the person who we believe committed the heinous crime of stabbing three of our young people is now behind bars," Herbert said. "We owe the NYPD a great debt of gratitude for a job well done."With Kerry Burke, Christian Zhang and Thomas Tracy 
 
 rparascandola@nydailynews.com 
 
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– Police in New York City arrested a 27-year-old man tonight accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and injuring his 7-year-old playmate over the weekend, reports Gothamist. Daniel St. Hubert is in custody, the arrest made soon after police publicly identified him as a suspect. As the Daily News explains, the break in the case came when investigators matched DNA found on a knife left at the scene with the state's criminal database. Hubert has a long criminal record for offenses including assault and had been paroled on May 23, reports the New York Times. Police haven't called him a suspect in another fatal stabbing that occurred just two nights earlier, but the investigation is continuing. The same brand of knife—a model discontinued 10 years ago—was left behind in the slaying of 18-year-old Tanaya Copeland, and the man seen fleeing that scene had the same general description as Hubert. The 6-year-old boy who was killed, PJ Avitto, had gotten into an elevator with friend Mikayla Capers in their Brooklyn housing complex before being attacked. Mikayla remains in critical condition.