A 22-year-old migrant from El Salvador has been arrested for allegedly stabbing two women to death in New York within hours on the same night. Rony Yahir Alvarenga Rivera, who has been in the United States illegally since the age of 12, faces charges of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder in Nassau County.
Police say the first killing occurred around 9 p.m. on Thursday at a home in Valley Stream, where Rivera lived with a 32-year-old woman. Her body was discovered with multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso. Her name has not been released.
Around midnight, authorities responded to a report of a person with a knife at a nearby Wendy's restaurant. There, they found a 42-year-old mother of two dead, also with multiple stab wounds. The victim was a coworker of Rivera at the fast-food outlet.
While investigating the Wendy's homicide, police received a 911 call about a man needing help at a nearby 7-Eleven. Officers found Rivera, who told them he had killed someone. He was arrested and linked to both murders.
Police have not disclosed a motive but described Rivera's mindset as "angry," according to Nassau County Police Department's commanding officer of the homicide unit, George Darienzo.
