During the morning rush on Monday, a man was slashed in the face outside a subway station on the Lower East Side, highlighting a troubling uptick in violence in the city’s transit system, according to police.
The 27-year-old victim was exiting the East Broadway E and F stations around 7:50 a.m. when an assailant approached him seemingly at random on Canal Street near Essex Street.
Authorities report that without any provocation, the attacker slashed the victim’s face and then fled the scene.
The victim was promptly taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where he is said to be in stable condition.
As of several hours later, the attacker remained unidentified and at large.
This incident occurred just two days after another similar assault, where two men were attacked on a subway platform in Midtown. In that case, one of the victims was pushed onto the tracks.
The two victims, aged 37 and 39, were waiting for a southbound F train on 57th Street around 11 p.m. Saturday when they noticed two suspects, who were wearing hoodies and masks, according to police.
After the victims started recording the suspects, the assailants became aggressive, slashing the 39-year-old’s hand and subsequently pushing the other victim onto the platform, resulting in him falling onto the roadbed but managing to get back up. He suffered a cut on his elbow.
Both victims were taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center and both were listed in stable condition.
Surveillance images from the incident show both attackers appearing to be Hispanic men in their twenties. One had on a black hoodie, black mask, and a purple coat, while the other wore a gray hoodie and an orange coat.
Earlier that day, a 37-year-old woman was assaulted in a different subway station in Lower Manhattan after trying to stop a man from groping her. Police reported that the incident took place around 2 p.m. at the Canal Street A Station when an unidentified man grabbed her, and upon confrontation, he punched her in the mouth before fleeing.
A photo of the suspect has been released, but he remains at large. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, black sweatshirt, white T-shirt, black pants, and white and black sneakers.
The victim of that attack declined medical treatment.
This wave of violence follows the murder of 64-year-old Nicola Tanzi, who was killed on the subway in Brooklyn last Tuesday. A 25-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to that case.
So far this year, reports indicate a slight increase in felony assaults on the transit system with 453 incidents compared to 445 in the same timeframe last year. However, serious crime on trains has decreased by about 4%, with 1,639 reported incidents compared to 1,706 the previous year.
