Dramatic video footage has been released of the moment a 69-year-old homeless man brutally stabbed a group of terrorizing thugs in a Queens subway, killing one man and injuring another.
Due to a twist in traffic justice, it is the surviving miscreants who are now behind bars, prosecutors said.
“The victim was accosted without provocation and our investigation determined that the victim defended himself as he attempted to retrieve his property,” Queens said. District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Wednesday.
“As a result, my office will not file charges in this death.”
Shocking footage of the violent encounter on the Number 7 train on December 22 shows the victim sleeping on the train just before 12:30 a.m. Prosecutors say Stalin -Two savages, identified as Moya and Oswald Walter, grab one of the man's bags and put him into a second car.
Moya then returns and grabs more of the victim's bag, waking him up in the process.
That's when things turned violent.
The unidentified victim followed Moya into a second car and tried to retrieve his belongings, but was attacked by several men in the group and assaulted him when he hid his bag.
Footage shows the victim being repeatedly shoved and punched by the group, but when he can't take it anymore, he pulls out a long knife and slashes at the attackers, killing at least two people. injured.
The dastardly thugs then scattered, some staggering away, bleeding from their wounds, while the victim stood in the middle of an empty subway car, still clutching a knife.
Queens prosecutors said Moya was killed and defendant Philip Pena was injured.
Pena, 26, Walter, 29, and two others, Jose Valencia, 35, and Henry Toapanta, 32, are currently facing charges of robbery and assault in the case. Indicted by jury.
Prosecutors said all suspects were also homeless.
“Our subways must be safe for the millions of people who rely on public transportation,” Katz said in a statement. “There are cameras in New York City's subways, and the footage recovered in this case is extremely important to prosecutors.”
The incident comes amid a recent spike in subway violence and bears similarities to previous incidents in which straphangers fought back against traffic offenders.
Most notable is the case of Daniel Penny, a Marine who was acquitted of strangling vagrant Jordan Neely to death on a Manhattan F train in 2023.
Another straphanger, Jordan Williams, fatally stabbed an aggressive homeless man who assaulted him and his companion on a Brooklyn J train later that year, but a grand jury found him guilty of manslaughter and weapons charges. He was acquitted by not indicting him.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
