A 34-year-old man was stabbed in the abdomen during a confrontation with a stranger sporting sunglasses on a Manhattan subway train, police said Saturday.
The victim was riding a Bronx-bound No. 4 train into the Bowling Green subway station in lower Manhattan at about 1:20 a.m. Saturday when the unidentified suspect, who was walking with a cane, approached.
The stranger flashed a sharp object and jammed it into the left side of the victim’s stomach as the two fought, cops said.
The attacker got off the train when the doors opened at the Bowling Green station.
Cops were called and EMS rushed the victim to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Investigators recovered surveillance footage of the attacker, which they released on Saturday, asking the public’s help in identifying him.
Investigators recovered surveillance footage of the attacker, which they released on Saturday, asking the public’s help in identifying him.
The attack comes as the NYPD announced that crime in the subway system dropped by 18% in the first three months of the year, helped by a massive influx of police officers to patrol trains and subway platforms.
This was the first time in the last seven years that there have been no murders in the subway in the first three months of the year, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced at a press conference on April 3.
Cops investigated 465 crimes in the New York City subway as of March 31, cops said. By contrast, by that time last year, police had investigated 568 incidents. This year’s crime numbers are the second lowest on the rails in 27 years.
“Our subways are safer than they’ve been in nearly a decade,” Tisch said.
The assailant in Saturday’s attack is described as having a dark complexion and was last seen wearing a black ski mask, a black sweatshirt and a black mask, plus sunglasses.
Anyone with information about the stabber’s whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.