Man Randomly Stabs 2 Kids in NYC Elevator

A 6-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl were on their way to grab Icees around 6pm yesterday when a man with a butcher knife brutally stabbed them both in the elevator of their Brooklyn housing project, according to police. The man pulled out the knife after telling the children to "shut up," and attacked them as the elevator was between the first and fourth floors, a police source tells the New York Daily News. Six-year-old Prince Joshua "PJ" Avitto was found dead in the elevator, while the girl, Mikayla Capers, managed to exit it and collapsed outside a nearby building.

A neighbor rushed out to attend to the girl. "Did PJ die?" Mikayla asked in the ambulance, according to the New York Times. "Why did this man hurt me?" The girl underwent surgery at Brookdale hospital, the New York Post reports. Police are currently hunting for the attacker, described as a heavyset man in his 20s. The knife was recovered at the scene. Police believe the attack was random, and are investigating the possibility that the same man was behind the stabbing death of a Long Island University student on Friday. (More stabbing stories.)