NYPD investigating multiple weekend stabbings, slashings in transit system
NEW YORK -- Reports of multiple stabbings and slashings in the subway system Sunday have some New Yorkers on edge.
The chaos started aboard a moving northbound J train in Brooklyn just after 2 a.m. when a 31-year-old was stabbed after an argument.
Devon Chambers was on his home from a club and says what he saw was horrific.
"I was about four cars down," he said. "There was an African-American brother with dreads, about 5'7", in a red hoodie, bleeding from all sides of his torso."
Chambers jumped into action.
"I urged other people around me to give me the shirts off their back and whatever they could offer so they can plug a homeboy's wounds," he said.
The suspect then took off at the Myrtle Avenue-Broadway station.
The victim was taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
- Related story: Sources: 2 women slashed at Upper East Side subway station
This attack was one of three on Sunday alone. Around 4:15 p.m., officers were summoned to the corner of Lexington and East 86th Street after two women were slashed.
Investigators say the 19- and 48-year-old victims were both slashed in the leg. The suspect took off into the subway station at the corner.
"I would never think that that would happen in this community," subway rider Sheila Santiago said.
It didn't stop there. Just 20 minutes later, at the Chambers and Center streets station, an unknown man slashed a 28-year-old woman on a southbound 4 train. That woman was rushed to hospital and is expected to be OK.
"I'm not taking the subway, thank you for that. I'm a little scared, a little alarmed, not going to lie," Santiago said.
Even though NYPD data shows transit crimes are down nearly 8% from this time last year, New Yorkers are on guard.
"Just being more vigilant, that's all I can do. It's New York. Unfortunately, that's what we have to get use to," Santiago said.
Police say all the victims from all three attacks are expected to survive. As far as the suspects, no one has been arrested for any of the crimes.
Sunday's subway violence followed a deadly attack Saturday.
Police say 32-year-old Tavon Silver was found unconscious with stab wounds on a southbound 4 train around 4 a.m. Saturday. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
No arrests have been made in that attack, either.