Suspect In UES Chase Bank Stabbing Is Arrested, Police Say

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Police have arrested the customer accused of stabbing a security guard at a busy Upper East Side bank branch on Friday.

Jorge L. Santiago, 34, was taken into custody around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, police said. Santiago lives on East 96th Street and Second Avenue, just 10 blocks north of the Chase Bank branch where Friday's attack played out.

According to police, the then-unidentified customer had gotten into an argument with a bank teller Friday morning. A manager came by to talk to him, at which point he became belligerent and was asked to leave the bank, police said.

When a security guard tried to intervene, the unidentified suspect stabbed the guard in the neck inside the bank's vestibule, then fled on foot westbound along East 86th Street, police said.

The 59-year-old guard, who was initially in critical condition, is now stable at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, police said Saturday.

Santiago was charged with attempted murder, assault, and criminal posession of a weapon, police said.

A Chase Bank spokesperson told Patch: "Our thoughts are with the guard and his family and we are cooperating with police."

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