A 26-year-old Queens man who allegedly slashed a 19-year-old woman in the Lower East Side of New York City and punched another in a Brooklyn hotel before raping a woman in Baltimore was eventually released into Maryland without bail Detained – despite his arrest and released five times in the Big Apple during his 11-day crime spree.
Subhan Zaib, 26, reportedly began his crime spree, mostly targeting women, on May 30 when he threatened his ex-girlfriend in Queens and ended on June 14 with a brutal rape in Baltimore.
These included the alleged stabbing of a 19-year-old woman at the Delancey Street/Essex Street station on the Lower East Side on June 10.
Zaib began his reign of terror between 3 and 4 a.m. on May 30, his ex-girlfriend, who wished to remain anonymous, told the New York Daily News (NYDN). He reportedly called her just to reach her father and threatened to kill her and her family if she didn’t return the $500 he allegedly owed her.
“I’m coming to get the money and if you don’t give it to me I will kill you and your family,” he told the father, the ad said, seen by the NYDN.
The couple split seven years ago, and she said he was “always so violent when I was around him.”
However, she said she was surprised he “could harm a random person” but wasn’t shocked the cuts happened, she told the NYDN.
Subhan Zaib, 26, was arrested five times and released without bail before stabbing a 19-year-old woman to death on June 10 at the Delancey Street/Essex Street station on the Lower East Side. His crimes, mostly targeting women, began on May 30th by threatening his ex-girlfriend in Queens and ended on June 14th with a brutal rape in Baltimore
“When I was associated with him, he made death threats and stalked people who he felt had wronged him,” she told the NYDN.
He was arrested after the threats and released on “non-monetary terms”, the Queen’s Attorney’s Office said.
Two days later, he allegedly terrorized his Richmond Hill neighbor, Johann Poveda, by cutting the wires to his security cameras and ripping off his ring doorbell.
Poveda lived in the house among Zaib’s family and said he and his wife “called the police several times about him”.
Poveda told the NYDN that Zaib scared him constantly and that the man’s father told him he was “mentally ill, but he wouldn’t take his medicine.”
“His father was afraid of his son,” Poveda told the New York Daily News. “We lived next door to them for about five years and it wasn’t a pleasant experience at all.
Zaib went on an 11-day crime spree before being held in Baltimore for rape without bail. He was arrested during his crimes in New York and released without bail
“He was very problematic. He threatened us several times.”
Just minutes later, Zaib is said to have attacked a man with a knife on 108th Street and Atlantic Avenue. The man called authorities and was arrested for criminal mischief. Menace, criminal gun ownership, trespassing and harassment.
He was again released without bail.
On June 4, his crimes escalated significantly, becoming more violent and expanding into another county.
He reportedly beat, choked and belted a woman and threatened her with a knife in a room at Hotel 369 on Glenmore Avenue in Brooklyn, according to prosecutors.
Zaib was again released without bail despite second-degree assault being a possibility, the NYDN reported.
Brooklyn prosecutors reported a bail waiver because the victim allegedly provided a fake phone number and police were unable to contact her, NYDN sources said.
Three days later, at around 9:30 p.m., Zaib hid in the women’s restroom at the Rock Church in Maspeth, Queens. When an unidentified woman entered the bathroom and found him, she reportedly told him, “You can’t be in here.”
He then turned off the light and pinned her against the wall, the NYDN reported. She was able to free herself and get help, telling another churchgoer, “He tried to rape me.”
Police released his photo (pictured) after he slashed a woman at a Lower East Side subway station. His father told his neighbor he was “scared” of his sun and that his son was “mentally ill”.
The man then followed Zaib. The criminal then threatened the man and said to him, “I can fucking kill you. I can fucking shoot you,” the complaint reads.
He was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, but was released without bail.
On June 10, he attacked the 19-year-old, who was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital in stable condition.
Four days later, he would land in Charm City, where he would meet his next victim outside of a Walgreens. According to a criminal complaint, he asked the woman for a lighter before ordering her with a knife point into a wooded area near the store.
He reportedly raped the woman in the wooded area and forced her to call him a “pimp,” the NYDN reported.
Zaib was reportedly identified by Maryland police based on his NYC backpack.