Woman charged with stabbing 1-year-old in Rittenhouse Square and attacking a 24-year-old earlier in the day

A New York woman who police say stabbed a 1-year-old boy as his parents pushed him and his twin in a stroller outside a synagogue near Rittenhouse Square on Saturday has been charged with attempted murder and related crimes, police said Monday.

Takeira Hester, 28, was also charged with stabbing a 24-year-old woman who was walking on Chancellor Street earlier in the day, six blocks away from where the child was stabbed, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.

Police described both incidents as “completely random attacks.” In both cases, they said, the weapon Hester used was a long knife.

Hester is being held on $4 million bail, said Assistant District Attorney Amanda Hedrick. Hester was also being held on $500,000 bail in connection with a bench warrant for a charge of assault with a deadly weapon out of New York, Hedrick said.

A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office did not immediately provide details on the New York crime.

At 7:57 a.m. Saturday, police said, a 24-year-old woman was walking east on the 1300 block of Chancellor Street when Hester stabbed her in the chest and hand and fled.

Hours later, police said, Hester approached a couple outside Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel on South 18th Street around 12 p.m and stabbed the 1-year-old in both arms.

The children’s father chased after Hester, police said, and she dropped a black bag containing a coat the attacker in the first stabbing appeared to be wearing in surveillance footage.

After police put out an alert with a description of the assailant, Hester was arrested Sunday on the 400 block of North 63rd Street, authorities said.

Police said the assault outside the synagogue was not antisemitic, and Lynne Balaban, the synagogue’s executive director reiterated that in a message to congregants Saturday. She said police told synagogue officials the attacker was known to authorities and had been experiencing a mental health crisis.

The child was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was listed in stable condition, police said. The woman was initially listed in stable condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and later released.