ASTORIA — The Astoria man who went on a daylong rampage through the neighborhood earlier this month, leaving a man dead and two others injured, has been connected to another slashing in Queens that occurred the same day, police said.
Just hours after James Patrick Dillon, 23, slashed a neighbor in Astoria and before he fatally stabbed a local liquor store owner on March 6, he slashed a 43-year-old man on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, according to authorities.
Dillon slashed the man, whom he didn't know, in the back of the neck on Roosevelt Avenue near 85th Street at about 1:30 p.m. that day, Capt. Peter Fortune of the 114th Precinct told members of the community council Tuesday.
Police connected Dillon to the slashing days after it happened after reviewing video footage of the crime, Fortune said. The victim was not seriously injured.
The incident took place in the midst of a larger crime spree committed by Dillon on March 6, which started in Astoria shortly after 11 a.m., when he slashed a woman who lives on his block on 36th Street.
He then headed to Jackson Heights where he slashed the 43-year-old man, before returning to Astoria, according to Fortune.
Around 3 p.m., he entered a liquor store at 38-18 Astoria Blvd., where he fatally stabbed 55-year-old owner George Patouhas and set another man there on fire after dousing him with what police have since identified as acetone.
He tried to break into an apartment on 42nd Street off of 31st Avenue in Astoria about two hours later, but was unsuccessful.
Shortly after, Dillon — son of an FDNY lieutenant, according to sources — tried to break into an FDNY vehicle that was parked on 35th Street and 28th Avenue, according to Fortune.
At this point, a "small army" of police were searching for Dillon, Fortune said.
The suspect then walked back to his home on 36th Street, off Astoria Boulevard, where he was confronted by two officers from the NYPD's Critical Response Command who ordered him to drop a knife and Corona bottle filled with acetone that he was carrying.
Dillon splashed the two men in the face with the acetone, and the officers fired their guns at him, striking him seven times.
Dillon was taken to Elmhurst General Hospital, where he remains. He had yet to be arraigned as of Wednesday morning, according to the Queens District Attorney's Office.
Police believe Dillon may also be responsible for another slashing two days before his bloody Astoria spree, on the evening of March 4, when a 26-year-old man smoking a cigarette on 28th Street near 40th Avenue was slashed in the chin.
Dillon, however, has not definitively been linked to or charged with the crime, since the victim could not identify his attacker and there were no witnesses, according to Fortune.
The captain told members of the 114th Precinct Community Council that Dillon was schizophrenic and had been off his medication "for some time."
He described the March 6 spree as "one of the most tragic incidents I've really come across," during his tenure with the NYPD.
"Just a tragedy," he said.
