Exclusive: Bronx Mother Opens Up About Being Slashed By Stranger On Harlem Sidewalk
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A woman who was randomly slashed on a sidewalk by a stranger is speaking out for the first time since the unprovoked attack.
Behind a bandage is a painful gash that now runs deep along the Bronx mother's temple, just centimeters from her eye.
"I just heard in my head like a big 'bang, bang,' and I said, 'what happened?'" she told CBS2's Reena Roy in an exclusive interview Friday.
The 48-year-old never saw the violent, flat-out random attack coming. She said she's now scared to show her face.
"I saw a little bit of my hair. I turned around and saw the guy running, and said, 'What did I do?'" she said.
It's a question that keeps her up at night.
Police said around 8:30 p.m. Monday a man approached her on 125th Street, with no words and no warning. Surveillance video shows him appear to pull a razor out of his month, turn around and slash her.
"It happened so fast. I didn't expect that. I don't know," she said. "He just hit me and ran."
She said she had been walking down 125th Street in between two cleaning jobs to catch a bus. Instead, she ended up bleeding in front of the Apollo Theater where she was attacked.
"I saw my blood coming out and then I was afraid, and some people started giving some napkins, but it didn't work nothing," she said.
As the blood kept rushing, the only thing on her mind was her two young daughters.
She was rushed to Harlem Hospital where doctors sewed the cut with seven stitches.
Investigators are still searching for the man with the razor.
"Now I'm afraid," she said. "More now… if you're going to go out again, you don't know who's passing by you, what's going to happen."
Police are asking anyone with information to come forward. The victim and her family are hoping for a quick arrest so the suspect isn't able to strike again.