Suspect arrested in three unprovoked “serial” stabbings near overpass, police say

A man whom investigators say may have stabbed up to three different victims without any apparent provocation near the Pontchartrain Expressway overpass has been arrested, New Orleans police said.

DeFranklin V. Reynolds, 24, has been charged with aggravated battery in two stabbings and is a “strong suspect” in a third, said NOPD Sgt. Daniel Scanlan during the Sixth District’s weekly meeting Wednesday. The stabbings took place over the past early Thursday, early Friday and Sunday afternoon, all along Calliope Street under the Pontchartrain Expressway around Baronne Street and O.C. Haley Boulevard.

In each case, the attack appears to have been unprovoked, Scanlan said. In one case, Reynolds walked up to the victim and accosted him verbally, and when the victim tried to leave, Reynolds attacked him with a sharp object, Scanlan said. In another case, Reynolds actually attacked the victim while he was sleeping, Scanlan said. He was positively identified by the victims in two cases, Scanlan said, and while investigators have yet to locate the third victim since his release from the hospital, that attack fits the pattern of the other two.

One of the victims suffered a severe injury to his spinal cord in the attack and may be facing some paralysis, Scanlan said.

The victims said they did not know Reynolds, Scanlan said. He was ultimately located at the New Orleans Mission homeless shelter, Scanlan said, and booked into jail Monday.