A 39-year-old mom from California holiday shopping at Macy’s Herald Square was repeatedly knifed in the back by a homeless woman released from a psychiatric hospital that morning as the mom changed her infant daughter in the department store bathroom during a wild, unprovoked attack, officials said Friday.
The victim was changing her 9-month-old daughter’s diaper in a seventh-floor bathroom at Macy’s flagship store on W. 34th St. near Broadway around 3:15 p.m. Thursday when Kerri Aherne, 43, rushed in and repeatedly jammed a blade into the woman’s back, cops said. She also slashed her victim’s arm.
The victim’s husband heard the commotion inside the bathroom, ran in, and grabbed the assailant, holding her until police could arrive.
The knife used was recovered at the scene.
EMS rushed the mom to Bellevue Hospital, where she’s expected to survive. Her daughter, who was just inches from the stabbing, fell to the floor during the crazed assault — but was unharmed.
Police charged Aherne with two counts of attempted murder, assault, weapons possession and endangering the welfare of a child.
The two women didn’t know each other and there was no altercation, according to police.
Aherne appeared frightened and confused after a Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered her held without bail at her arraignment on Friday evening.
“I am what?” Aherne said. “What does that mean?
“I don’t want to go to another hospital. They didn’t help me at Manhattan Psychiatric Center.”
Following her arrest, Aherne told investigators she’s been hospitalized for most of her adult life and had been a patient at Manhattan Psychiatric Center for a year prior to her release just hours before the attack, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Paul Barker told the judge at Friday’s arraignment.
After being discharged from the psychiatric hospital, Aherne purchased a knife at Macy’s, which she then turned on the victim because “voices in her head told her she had to kill someone or she would be killed,” Barker said. A police source said it was a kitchen knife.
Aherne has no criminal history in New York, but was arrested in her hometown in Massachusetts in 2018 for making online threats, including a Facebook post about killing Senator Elizabeth Warren, Barker told the judge.
She faces up to 25 years in prison for the stabbing, Barker said.
Court-appointed attorney Kevin Sylvan reserved bail application and swept by press without answering questions as he left court.
Shoppers who packed the storied W. 34th St. department store were horrified to learn of the unprovoked, holiday-season stabbing.
“I can’t believe it,” said Manhattan resident Rosie McClellan, 64, a former Ringling Bros. circus showgirl. “No one should be stabbed doing their Christmas shopping with their baby. I saw that movie ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ If this happens here, who will come see Santa?”
Brooklynite Rachel Green, 38, spoke to a Daily News reporter after emerging from the seventh-floor bathroom where Aherne launched her alleged assault.
“I’m shocked,” said Green. “If I’d known, I’d have never gone in there.
“I’ve been here every day this week doing my Christmas shopping. I’ve noticed more security — the red coats — since yesterday. I figured it was the Christmas rush.
“It’s a bigger problem than Macy’s,” she continued. “The homeless are everywhere, in the streets, on the subways. Macy’s can’t be seen throwing people out who they suspect might be homeless, but they have to be more concerned about the safety of their customers.”
One woman, whose friend, a Macy’s employee, informed her of Thursday’s unprovoked assault, spoke to a Daily News reporter as she changed her baby’s diaper inside the store’s frigid vestibule at the corner of 34th St. and Seventh Ave., which she said she preferred to the bathroom where the attack occurred.
“I did not use the seventh-floor bathroom because of that,” 27-year-old Queens resident Oishe Tawhid said, as she changed her 3-year-old’s diaper in her baby carriage. “There should be more security, especially around the restrooms. This shouldn’t happen to anyone. I feel so sorry for that lady.”
Aherne is from Tewksbury, Mass., about 220 miles from Herald Square, and is homeless in New York, cops said.
“We are deeply saddened about the incident that took place today as the safety of our customers and colleagues is our top priority,” a Macy’s spokesman said in a statement. “We kindly defer any further questions to the local authorities.”
