Alleged subway slasher arrested & may face charges for other attacks
Posted March 1, 2013 10:53 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Toronto man arrested for a stabbing on a subway train Wednesday night may be responsible for other unprovoked attacks across the city, police say.
“We’re gonna see a few more charges coming out from this,” Det.-Sgt. Dan Sabadics said.
“Incidents of assault, threatening, very similar in nature — not stabbing, not to the extent of violence as this one from two days ago, but confrontational.”
Acting on a tip, police tracked down and arrested Cassim Celani Cummings, 20, around 10 a.m. Friday without incident and charged him with seven offences, including attempted murder and aggravated assault.
Officers say Cummings got on a southbound train at Eglinton station just after 10 p.m. Wednesday and began harassing and yelling at passengers.
The victim — a 35-year-old man from Barrie — was stabbed when he stood up as the accused approached him.
The man, who remains in hospital with slashes to his neck, released a brief statement on Friday thanking hospital staff, police, media and fellow passengers following his ordeal.
“My family and I wish to publicly thank those individuals who came to my aid and offered help to a complete stranger,” the statement read.
“It is with sincere appreciation that I offer this thanks to those who put my life ahead of their own personal safety. For that I am grateful and hope their actions serve as a reminder that people in this city still care and that a strong sense of community was evident that night in the subway.”
Several passengers, including a doctor, came to his aid, activating the train’s emergency alarm, calling police on their cellphones and even applying pressure to the wound.
“He is very fortunate,” Sabadics said.
“It was a very deep wound … and it was close to the jugular. If it was any more forward, he would have succumbed.”
Cummings has 19 prior convictions from Scarborough to Etobicoke, and his mother had requested a mental health assessment in the past, police say.
“All I need is for the public to know that my son is sick,” Cummings’ mother told CityNews in a phone interview.
“He’s schizophrenic, he’s bipolar and he’s psychotic. This is what he was diagnosed with. He should have been on medication. He’s not taking his medication.”
Cummings is scheduled to appear in a College Park court for a bail hearing on Saturday morning.
