Suspect in random Queens bus stop stabbing arrested after dad convinces him to turn himself in 13%
By Thomas Tracy44% Kerry Burke36%
3/19/2026, 1:15:29 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 1 faulty reasoning type, including Appeal to Emotion, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 32.8% saturation with 192 hits. Analysis detected 192 faulty-reasoning hits from 585 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 29.9% and a BS Rank of 13% (14,661 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 87.20% of the article peer group.
A suspect was arrested Thursday after his dad convinced him to turn himself in for randomly stabbing a Queens mom at her local bus stop as she was headed to work, officials said.
Luis Emmanuel Valencia Ponce, 18, surrendered to authorities a day after the NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect and asked the public’s help identifying him.
The teen was arraigned on attempted murder and assault charges before Judge Maria Gonzalez in Queens Criminal Court late Thursday, and ordered held without bail until his next court date on March 24.
Prior to turning himself in, the suspect had attempted to flee the country to his native Peru, but was taken into custody by Port Authority police for a psych evaluation after he attempted to enter a plane at JFK without a boarding pass, according to law enforcement.
Not realizing at the time that he was wanted for the stabbing, PAPD released Valencia Ponce, but the suspect’s dad saw his son’s photo in the news and confronted him, convincing him to surrender, cops said.
The 30-year-old victim was across the street about to arrive at the bus stop near 23rd Ave. and 94th St. in East Elmhurst when a stranger stormed up and stabbed her in the back and left arm, startling surveillance video obtained by the Daily News shows.
“Thank God I’m still here,” the victim, who didn’t want to be identified, told the Daily News from her hospital bed.
“I’m surprised this happened to me.
I don’t have problems with anyone.
I’m a calm person.
I’m shy.
I don’t socialize like that.”
The victim was taken by medics to Elmhurst Hospital Center in stable condition.
She said doctors told her she needed to stay in the hospital for several days so they could treat her wounds, which included several fractured ribs.
She was on her way to work at a Whole Foods in Manhattan when she was attacked from behind.
Even though her coat and sweater cushioned the force of the blows, the kitchen knife attack still left her with puncture wounds that needed stitches.
”Four times,” she said.
“It was so fast.
That was the weird part because he didn’t say anything.
He didn’t even steal anything from me.”
At the behest of his father, the teen turned himself in at the 115th Precinct stationhouse in Queens just after midnight.
Thursday, cops said.
At his arraignment, the teen’s lawyer, Michelle Minkin, of the Brooklyn Defenders Queens office, argued for “medical and psychiatric attention… and other supportive services.”
But Assistant District Attorney Isabelle Dudek pointed out the victim suffered a “punctured lung along with four stab wounds, and she did receive approximately 11 stitches for her injuries,” adding: “She is very fearful after this incident, and she is fearful of the defendant.”
Valencia Ponce lives about four blocks from where the attack took place, cops said.
He does not have a documented history of mental illness or emotional outbursts and has no criminal record.
He stabbed her in two bursts, the video shows.
“The first two times that he stabbed me, I screamed and then it looked like he was about to leave,” the victim said.
“And then he came back and he stabbed me again.
I was just bending down.”
“I’m in pain,” she added.
“It hurts to breathe.
I’m just resting and hope to recover soon and go home.
I have children at home.”
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