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A troubled vagrant randomly stabbed two teenage girls enjoying a Christmas morning meal with their parents at a Grand Central Terminal restaurant — after ranting that he wanted “all white people dead,” authorities said.
The girls, 14- and 16-year-olds visiting from South America, were attacked at Tartinery in the Grand Central Dining Concourse around 11:25 a.m. Monday and suffered non-life-threatening stab wounds, police and sources said.
“I want all the white people dead,” the suspect, Steven Hutcherson, 36, allegedly yelled, according to police sources. “I want to sit next to the crackers.”
He then allegedly lunged at the unsuspecting teens, plunging a knife into the 16-year-old’s back, nicking her lungs, and stabbing the younger girl in the thigh, police and a law enforcement source said.
Hutcherson — who cops and sources said has a slew of prior arrests and a history of mental health issues — had allegedly popped up at the restaurant and said he wanted a table but wasn’t going to order anything, staffers told The Post.
When he was still refused, he allegedly became irate and pointed to the victims’ family, arguing that they weren’t eating anything at the time — then went off, grabbed a knife and attacked the girls, the staffers said.
Nearby transit police officers rushed over in less than a minute and Hutcherson dropped the knife as soon as they arrived, the MTA said.
“Everyone was just running,” a veteran MTA employee who witnessed the incident said Tuesday, calling the scene “chaotic.”
Hutcherson was booked on felony counts of attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, according to the MTA.
He was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday.
FDNY EMS took the girls, who sources said were staying at a nearby Midtown hotel, to Bellevue Hospital to be treated for their injuries.
A hotel worker said the teens were released from the hospital later that day, and “are OK.”
Hutcherson has 17 prior arrests on his rap sheet, sources said. He also has been classified as an “emotionally disturbed person” in prior brushes with police, according to the law enforcement sources.
Prior to Monday’s incident, he was last arrested Nov. 7 for allegedly threatening to “shoot” a stranger in the Bronx.
“I’m gonna shoot you. I don’t care what kind of green card the government gave you,” he said, according to the criminal complaint against him. “Open your mouth and say something. I will shoot you right now.”
He then pulled what the victim believed was a gun “from the side of his pants,” according to the complaint — though law enforcement sources said cops didn’t find a firearm on him but did recover a knife.
Hutcherson was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, harassment and assault.
He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced Dec. 12 to conditional discharge, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said.
“They shouldn’t have let him out [of jail]. I don’t believe it,” the victim in that case, Yussif Abdullahi, 46, told The Post on Tuesday.
“DAs are chopping all the charges down. Judges are letting him go,” a law enforcement source added.
“Now we’ve got two teenagers who were stabbed.”
Hutcherson’s arrest last month followed his Oct. 27 sentencing to 15 days in jail in an earlier case from this summer, also in the Bronx, the DA’s Office said.
It’s not clear how much of the 15 days Hutcherson actually served.
That case stemmed from a July 24 arrest, for which he had been charged with resisting arrest, according to court records.
Police sources said he walked into the 44th Precinct stationhouse acting belligerent and that cops found a dagger and a switchblade when they arrested him after escorting him out.
He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor weapon possession charges.
Hutcherson was also arrested on Oct. 2 and charged with smashing a display case at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan, causing $81,000 in damage, according to a criminal complaint.
Manhattan prosecutors said he was initially ordered held on $3,000 bail in that case and pleaded guilty to second-degree menacing on Oct. 12 for which he was also sentenced to 15 days in jail.