A 25-year-old man stabbed multiple times by a stranger in a Bronx subway station was targeted for objecting to the attacker’s intense staring, the victim’s father told the Daily News.
Devonte Walters, the father of a baby girl, was initially listed in critical condition but is now recovering at home from the Sunday attack.
Walters was told to turn around and head home from his Amazon warehouse job in Queens, leading him to get on the ill-fated No. 5 train, his father, Merrick Walters, said Monday.
“He was five minutes late so Amazon sent him home,” said Merrick Walters, 56. “That’s when it happened … It was crazy.”
Devonte first spotted his attacker as he rode the train to the E. 149th St.-Grand Concourse station, where he planned to transfer.
“The guy was sitting straight in front of him staring at him,” said Merrick. “Devonte asked him, ‘Do you know me?’”
Police released a picture of the suspect (left) after Devonte Walters was stabbed multiple times at the Grand Concourse-E. 149th Street station in the Bronx on Sunday. (NYPD; Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The stranger just stared back at Devonte, saying nothing.
“I was standing by the door and then he got up,” Devonte told CBS News New York. “His shoulder touched my shoulder. I turned around, ‘Bro, why you so close to me?’ As soon as the door opened, that’s when he started stabbing me.”
Devonte was stabbed twice in the face, twice in the back, once in the neck and once in the hand about 11 a.m., according to his father.
“Devonte got off to change trains,” said Merrick. “(The attacker) came up from behind and started stabbing him.”
As the victim lay bleeding on the floor the stabber ran out of the station. He is still being sought.
“I was blacking out,” Devonte told CBS New New York. “That was the scariest part about it, thinking I was gonna die, I wasn’t gonna see my daughter again.”
Medics rushed Devonte to Lincoln Hospital. He was released to recover at home on Monday.
“His face is all bandaged up,” said Devonte’s concerned father. “It’s not good.”
Police on Sunday released a photo of the suspect, who Merrick Walters said has “no regard about nobody,” and asked the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
As of Sunday, there have been 38 reported felony assaults in the city’s transit system this year, according to NYPD data. This marks a decrease from the same period last year, when 52 assaults were reported.
But assaults are up 23% compared with the same period in 2020, just before the pandemic led to a significant drop in subway ridership, which still remains below pre-pandemic levels.