Gang member who killed Columbia U. teaching assistant in Manhattan stabbing spree pleads guilty

Rocco Parascandola and Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Jul 11, 2026

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NEW YORK — The gang member accused of fatally stabbing a Columbia University teaching assistant during a series of apparently random attacks in Morningside Heights and Central Park has pleaded guilty to the 2021 stabbing spree, officials from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed Saturday.

Vincent Pinkney, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of murder in the second degree and two counts of attempted murder in the second degree during a routine court appearance on Friday with the understanding that he will be sentenced to 25 years to life. His sentence is expected to be carried out on Sept. 25, a Manhattan DA spokeswoman confirmed.

Pinkney was already on parole for a Queens gang assault conviction and owner of a long rap sheet when he fatally stabbed David Giri, a teaching assistant who’d been working toward a Ph.D. in computer science on Dec. 2, 2021, officials said.

Giri, 30, was attacked as he walked home from a late-night soccer practice, cops said at the time.

The slaying was captured on video, with Pinkney wielding a white-handled kitchen knife as he approached the unsuspecting stranger, a police source said. Stunned eyewitnesses called 911 after the mortally-wounded Giri, targeted for no apparent reason, stumbled along the sidewalk.

Giri ran from the park and was heard screaming, “Help, I have been stabbed,” before collapsing to the ground near the corner of W. 123rd St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Harlem, according to a criminal complaint.

Pinkney ran off, and was heard crying out in delight after he stabbed a second New York University graduate student, 27-year-old Robert Malaspina, walking along Columbus Ave. near W. 110th St., a witness told the Daily News. That man survived the attack.

Cops apprehended Pinkney in nearby Central Park after he tried to attack a couple walking a dog, cops said.

At his arraignment in Manhattan criminal court, even his lawyer recoiled from hearing the chilling details of his client’s bloody stabbing spree.

“I don’t want to hear the gruesome facts of this unspeakable tragedy,” Legal Aid Society attorney George Santos said at the hearing. “It is — I mean it’s horrible.”

Pinkney was ordered held without bail on charges of murder, assault, attempted assault, and attempted murder.

An eyewitness to Malaspina’s stabbing told The News the assailant was“ecstatic” after plunging the blade into the helpless man — a horrific attack that unfolded just 20 minutes after Giri was fatally stabbed.

In a third frightening encounter, Pinkney also tried to stab a couple walking their dog in nearby Central Park. Pinkney, a member of the Queens-based gang “Everybody Killas,” was arrested in the park after the dog-walking couple pointed him out to police, cops said.

Giri, who hailed from the small village of Scaparoni, Italy, was mourned by thousands at a memorial service at Columbia University. He came to New York in January 2016 to attend the university.

Malaspina, also a native of Italy, is a graduate of the University of Florence, a researcher at the University of Milan and curator at the Narkissos art gallery in Bologna, his father said.