A Big Apple straphanger was repeatedly hit in the head with a metal pipe at a Queens subway station. This is the latest example of recent violence in the city’s troubled transit system.
Police said the underground assault occurred shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday at the Queensboro Plaza Station, where a thug walked up to the 31-year-old victim and punched him in the head “multiple times” in an unprovoked attack.
The bearded attacker then fled, leaving the victim unconscious.
Police said Monday that he suffered multiple cuts to his head and was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in stable condition.
The assault is just the latest in recent incidents of underground violence in the city’s subways, as New Yorkers continue to worry about their safety within the transit system.
The attack comes after a Brazilian tourist was stabbed in the back in an unprovoked attack on Thursday at Queen’s Plaza Station, police said.
According to authorities and sources, the 29-year-old victim was standing at a chaotic train station around 10:30 a.m. when an unknown man ran up to her from behind and slashed her in the neck.
“Sometimes people get stabbed at the end of this station. People sometimes get stabbed in the elevators,” an MTA employee at the Queens Plaza station told the Post on Monday. “It’s very, very bad.
“You have to think about the people who wake up at 4 a.m. and run to catch the train,” said the employee, who requested anonymity. “They have a right to a clean and safe train ride. They shouldn’t be looking over their shoulder or standing there just because they’re homeless. [are] I passed out in my seat. ”
A 16-year-old boy was stabbed in the left thigh at around 3:20 p.m. Wednesday at Brooklyn’s Coney Island-Stilwell Avenue Station and was taken to NYU Langone Hospital in stable condition, police said.
Also on that day, a 58-year-old MTA worker was punched in the face by a deranged homeless man on a subway platform in Lower Manhattan, and bystanders watched as he tried to help.
Last Tuesday, 29-year-old musician Ian Forrest was entertaining commuters with his cello at a Midtown station when a crazed woman grabbed his metal water bottle, hit him in the back of the head, and left without a word. .
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Forrest said he no longer plays music on the subway after the heartbreaking and senseless attack. He was attacked for the second time in less than two years.
“I have been beaten, choked and now hit in the head,” he wrote. “As much as I would love to perform in front of you on the subway, I have reached my breaking point and cannot sustain any more injury or harm.”
His assailants remained at large on Monday.
The latest attack comes amid concerns about straphangers as traffic crime increases in the city.
“I see it all the time,” subway passenger Ricky Mohammed told the Post. “It doesn’t matter what time it is or who’s around you when you go to work or when you come home from work. The train is not a safe place.
“No matter what politicians say, it’s dangerous.”
Priscilla, a 27-year-old straphanger who asked that her name not be published, said she had even told her boss that she wouldn’t work at night because she was afraid of riding the subway after hours.
“If I didn’t have to take the train to work, I wouldn’t take the train at all,” she said. “People are being robbed, hit in the head, punched, stabbed for no reason. They don’t even know you. Why would you want to go through something like that just to get home?” Is that so?”
Traffic crimes declined last year, but soared so far in 2024, according to NYPD statistics.
Overall traffic crimes increased by 22.6% year-on-year from the beginning of the year to Feb. 11, according to the data, and serious crimes increased by more than 10%.
This figure includes a more than 39% spike in grand theft in the system.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy
