Police suspect a knife-wielding homeless man went on a rampage, stabbing four people in a bloody, 12-hour span, including two Canadian tourists and a Texas man, before police finally nabbed him early Wednesday.

Kenny Alexis, 21, was taken into custody about 4:15 a.m. outside a fast-food restaurant in midtown Manhattan shortly after the two women, both from Montreal, were stabbed, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Police said Alexis had in his possession the knife used in the attack on the two women and investigators were attempting to link it to two separate subway ambushes that took place earlier.

Kelly said Alexis admitted to stabbing the Canadians and the young man from Texas, who was in critical condition.

The commissioner said Alexis wielded the same knife during a separate incident Wednesday at a market in which no one was injured. A store employee whom Alexis threatened identified the weapon, Kelly said.

Charges were pending against Alexis, who was living in a shelter on Manhattan's West Side. Police, who are still investigating the attacks, said Alexis had been arrested previously on a number of charges in New York and Boston.

Police were trying to figure out the motive behind the violent crime spree.

"There's no indication at this time," Kelly told reporters at a Wednesday afternoon news conference at police headquarters.

Three of the victims remained in the hospital Wednesday afternoon. The fourth, one of the Canadians, has been treated and released. All the victims are expected to survive.

The last attack occurred about 4 a.m. as the Canadian women, ages 22 and 25, were walking not far from the Hotel Edison, where they were staying.

After crossing Broadway and 47th Street into a square, Alexis approached the women and stabbed each one in the back before fleeing, Kelly said.

Two security officers from the nearby W Hotel tended to the women and called police. Two of the W Hotel's doormen followed the suspect to a McDonald's and waited for police, who nabbed him as he was leaving the restaurant, according to police and hotel spokesman Jane Lehman.

Think in terms of Mazlow's hierarchy. A homeless person doesn't have security, shelter, or even know when he is next going to eat until the food is in his mouth. Add to his must basic urges controlling his actions, there is that unknown circumstance or mental condition that moved him from normal population who have homes and families to life on the streets.

It's certainly no excuse to go on a homicidal rampage, but "mental condition" would be the appropriate term for rationalizing it. More people undergo worse situations and never descend into criminal behavior, although as Maslow may have probably agreed, self-esteem and self-actualization (lack thereof that is) are known to drive people... what's the term... oh yes, nuts.

Well, with all the "Canada Bashing" in the US Media these days, it's no wonder Canadians are becoming targets. One might even say that these types of attacks are a symptom of a much larger malaise - a sort of national mental condition - whereby anything "foreign" is deemed to be undesirable.

(How else do you explain the US Governments desire to build a wall around it's borders, if not to keep residents "safe" inside)