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The man who stabbed two children in a Brooklyn elevator earlier this week, killing one, was arrested on Wednesday night after investigators used forensic evidence to track him down.

Daniel St. Hubert, 27, was arrested just minutes after police officials and Mayor Bill de Blasio publicly identified the suspect in a news conference at Police Headquarters. He is said to have an extensive criminal record and was released from prison less than two weeks ago.

According to the New York Times:

Mr. St. Hubert’s criminal record includes arrests for assaults on a police officer and a correction officer, the authorities said. He was released on May 23, said the chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce. Prison officials said he had served the full length of his five-year sentence for attempted murder and assault. He had been denied a conditional release in September for refusing to complete programs in prison, according to state correction records.

A law enforcement official said early Thursday morning that Mr. St. Hubert had been arrested in May 2009 on charges that he had punched his mother and tried to strangle her with a telephone wire.

News of St. Hubert’s arrest prompted applause from a community grieving the death of 6-year-old Prince Joshua Avitto, who was known as P.J., and Mikayla Capers, 7, who was critically wounded when the attacker stabbed them on Sunday in the Boulevard Houses of East New York.

Mikayla remains hospitalized.

When he heard the news of the arrest, Henry Alston, P.J.’s godfather, said by phone that he felt relieved.

“It’s great, I’m glad there’s an arrest,” he said. “There’s a relief that he’s off the streets and that no other family will have to suffer what me and mine have suffered.”

Witnesses said that upon hearing the news, Arica McClinton, P.J.’s mother, rushed out of the building where the children were stabbed and threw her hands in the air, triumphantly.

Hobbling toward the 75th Precinct station house with a cane on Wednesday night after hearing about the arrest, Regeina Trevathan, Mikayla’s great-grandmother, said she wanted a glimpse of the suspect.

“I want to see this bastard’s face,” said Ms. Trevathan, a retired correction officer. “He’s not a crazy person; he’s just an animal who does not belong on the face of the earth. I don’t think he’s going to be a happy camper in incarceration this time around; people in prison have children, too.”

Kudos to the police for tracking St. Hubert down, using DNA evidence pulled from the murder weapon.

We wish little Mikayla a speedy recovery.

SOURCE: NYT | VIDEO SOURCE: News Inc.