Police arrested most wanted robber, Rasheem Williams, in North Carolina Friday. Williams was wanted for targeting women riding the subway in the Upper West Side and robbing them. (NYPD)By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A violent subway mugger and career criminal who preyed primarily on young women and was on the NYPD's most wanted list following a spree of 14 robberies was caught in North Carolina this weekend, police said.
Rasheem Williams, 37, robbed people in Manhattan and three other boroughs, often brandishing a knife or threatening his victims by pretending to have a gun, according to the NYPD.
The crime spree began in January, according to police, when Williams allegedly took cash and bank cards form a 25-year-old woman on the B train at 145th Street. He struck again in April, when he attacked a 30-year-old woman on the A train at 207th Street, and continued robbing people throughout the spring and summer, police said.
The final incident occurred in August, when he attacked a 35-year-old woman on the F train in Queens.
Half the crimes occurred in Manhattan. Following the two initial crimes in the borough, Williams allegedly next struck in Manhattan on May 20, when he took cash and bank cards from a 24-year-old woman at the 207th Street station on the A train, police said. He fled the train at 190th Street.
Then on June 7, at the same station, he punched a 40-year-old woman in the face when she refused to give up her property, police said. He took off with her bank card at the Dyckman Street station, police said. The woman was cut on the face and got a black eye, police said.
It was the only incident where a victim was hurt.
Williams struck again in Manhattan on June 18, police said, when he pulled a knife on a 23-year-old woman at First Avenue and 4th Street. Four days later, he pretended he had a gun when he mugged a 33-year-old woman on the C train at 168th Street.
Finally on Aug. 5, in the Financial District, Williams allegedly sat next to a 22-year-old woman on the J train at Fulton Street / Nassau Street station and pulled a knife.
Williams was dubbed the "Red Sox Bandit," because he usually wore a baseball cap with the Yankee foe's logo on it, according to the New York Post.
A source told the paper that he would order his victims not to follow him, or "I'll hurt you," the paper reported.
Williams was caught in Rocky Mount, N.C. and was awaiting extradition to New York, police said.
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