DENVER -- A Denver man has been arrested in connection with a string of chilling stabbings of people waiting at RTD bus stops on West Colfax Avenue.

Leonard Allen Snyder, 27, who has prior felony convictions for assaulting a prison guard, theft and trespassing, was living in a Denver residential mental health treatment facility at the time of the attacks.

He was arrested Nov. 18 after investigators scouring the scene of the latest stabbing for witnesses found a man scavenging for aluminum cans from alley Dumpsters. The man said he did not witness the Nov. 12 stabbing of a 48-year-old woman at the bus stop near West Colfax and Xavier Street, but he had spotted a knife in a Dumpster down an alley where the attacker had fled, according to an arrest warrant affidavit for Snyder.

Investigators recovered a black knife and testing confirmed that blood on the blade matched the victim's DNA and the knife handle had DNA matching Snyder, according to the arrest affidavit. Snyder, as a convicted felon, was required to submit his DNA for a state database under Colorado law.

"It looks like very good detective work, following one lead to the next and not taking anything for granted," said Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Detectives were "asking just a common man on the street if he has any details and it bore fruit."

One of Snyder's victims, Lori Austin, told 7NEWS she can rest easy now, knowing he has been arrested.

"He could have killed me and I would have never seen anyone else in my family again," said Austin, 40.

She was stabbed three times in her lower neck May 30 by a man who ambushed her from behind as she strolled on West Colfax Avenue.

"I am glad he is caught so he is not out there injuring women again," Austin said.

Snyder was formally charged by the Denver district attorney last week with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon in the Nov. 12 stabbing of the 48-year-old woman. He remains in jail with bond set at $100,000.

Along with the case he's been charged with, Snyder is suspected in three other separate attacks of two women and a man between April 6 and May 30 based on victim descriptions of the attacker and the similarity of the assaults, according to court records.

All the victims have recovered from their wounds.

Police warned the public June 1 after linking the random attacks.

In each attack, a male assailant repeatedly stabbed victims from behind without saying a word, according to court records. Three victims were waiting at bus stops on West Colfax.

The attacker was described by victims and witnesses as a lighter skinned black or Hispanic man about 5-foot-6 to six-feet-tall, 150-to-180 pounds who often wore shorts, T-shirts and a bandana over his short, Afro-type hair.

Police have not released Snyder's arrest mug shot because they are still conducting photo lineups for witnesses, Jackson said.

Police obtained a warrant to search Snyder's room at John Vallogoes House, located at 1810 S. Columbine St. It is a residential mental health treatment facility near the University of Denver.

The treatment home is run by the Mental Health Center of Denver, a private nonprofit organization. It's one of 18 licensed residential treatment facilities operated by MHCD as "alternatives to hospitalization to stabilize mental health and substance abuse issues and to promote recovery," according to the nonprofit's Web site.

After his arrest, Snyder told investigators that he had been living at the treatment home since April.

Snyder "explained that he started carrying a knife when he was informed in June 2009 that a party on West Colfax Avenue was stabbing people," according to a search warrant for the suspect's room at John Vallogoes House.

When Snyder was shown a photograph of the knife recovered from the Dumpster, he confirmed it was his but said he'd lost the knife and his cell phone two week earlier.

The suspect's brother told police that Snyder always carried "some sort of pocket knife," according to the search warrant affidavit.

Police twice stopped Snyder in May and June because he matched the suspect description, the search warrant stated. Both times officers found the suspect was carrying a knife, but apparently the knives did not contain enough evidence to support an arrest.

Police Detective Stephanie Meadows stated she "believes that the suspect may have used different knives in the attacks," according to the search warrant affidavit.

During the search of Snyder's room, investigators seized his clothing, including jeans, shorts, T-shirts, gym shoes, an orange bandana and a baseball cap. They also collected two bus transfers.