USA –  Tall and disheveled, with a scraggly salt-and-pepper beard, Ramon Rivera was just one month out of jail when he approached a construction worker early Monday and fatally stabbed him without saying a word, police said.

He was not done, police said. An urban nightmare was unfolding on a mild autumn morning in New York. The 51-year-old made his way across Manhattan and, more than two hours later, police and prosecutors said, he fatally stabbed a fisherman and then a woman sitting on a park bench. His clothes covered in blood, Rivera was arrested shortly after the third attack with two bloody kitchen knives in his possession, according to police.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams described Rivera as a homeless man with a criminal history and “severe mental health issues,” an example of failures of the criminal justice and mental health systems. The seemingly random killings highlight the challenges confronting New York City and other municipalities across the country as they maneuver a delicate balancing act – how to deal with soaring homelessness and mental illness and its perceived – and actual – impact on public safety.

“We always hear something is being done but nothing changes, and every six months something unthinkable happens,” said Mary Brosnahan, who for three decades led the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy and service organization. “And that’s what gives everybody a sense of insecurity.” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat who represents the area where the stabbings occurred, on Thursday joined nearly a dozen city and state elected officials to demand accountability, saying Rivera was “released into the public without sufficient care or oversight.”

“Mr. Rivera’s case is a damning indictment of the failures of the criminal justice and mental health systems in New York City,” Nadler and the others wrote in a letter Thursday, echoing the mayor. The three deaths “may have been prevented,” they said in the letter. Adams, referring to Rivera, said part of the investigation will be to determine “why he was on the street.” A month before his alleged rampage, Rivera stood in a Manhattan courtroom. (CNN)