By Michael V. Cusenza
A four-day citywide hunt for the man accused of murdering his girlfriend and her two daughters at a Staten Island hotel ended on Saturday in Woodside.
Michael Sykes, 25, was arrested without incident around 3:30 p.m. in the lobby of a building in the Woodside Houses, according to police.
The Brooklyn resident was arraigned on Sunday on three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder in the first degree, and robbery, and remanded into City Department of Correction custody on Rikers Island.
Last Wednesday, according to police, Sykes stabbed to death his girlfriend, Rebecca Cutler, 26, and two of her three children, including the 4-month-old daughter she and Sykes shared. Cutler’s 2-year-old daughter, the sole survivor of the massacre, is still recovering in the hospital.
Cops responded to a 911 call around 10:15 a.m. “for multiple aided individuals” inside a Ramada Inn on Gannon Avenue. Upon arrival, police discovered Cutler, a 2-year-old girl, a 1-year-old girl and a 4-month old girl with multiple stab wounds to their bodies. EMS responded and transported the victims to Richmond University Medical Center and Staten Island University North Hospital. Cutler was pronounced dead at RUMC. The 1-year-old and the 4-month-old were pronounced dead at SIUN.
“Thanks goes to the hard-working officers of the NYPD for bringing Mr. Sykes into custody,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Saturday. “The judicial process can now begin to run its course. I hope the family members of the young mother and her small children can find some amount of closure in knowing he has been apprehended.”
michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
