Man stabbed in hand at Bronx station hopes Gov. Kathy Hochul's subway safety plan will net results
NEW YORK -- A man who was stabbed in the hand at a Bronx subway station told CBS New York on Thursday he hopes Gov. Kathy Hochul's new safety plan can make a difference.
The governor has assigned 750 National Guard members and 250 state and MTA police to check bags at the Penn Station turnstiles. It's the state's response to a 13% increase in subway crime compared to this time last year.
READ MORE: National Guard stationed in NYC subway as officials bring back bag checks
Beneath a bandage are eight stitches on Alfredo Troche Jr.'s hand.
Police say he confronted two men harassing an elderly woman at the Pelham Parkway Station just before 1 a.m. on Thursday. Troche said they were trying to steal her purse.
"I just jumped on one of them, punched him in the face, got him in headlock, kicked his teeth in, and the other guy, I swung at him, but he got me with a boxcutter," Troche said.
The NYPD said those men ran away and then took off in a van.
Troche said he wrapped his hand in a t-shirt and walked away to look for a police officer.
Then, he said, he collapsed and called for an ambulance.
"My adrenaline was so kicking in, I was just trying to save that lady, you understand?" Troche said. "So I wasn't even think about that I got cut. I just kept on moving, but I then I started seeing my hand was swollen and there was a lot of blood all over the place."
The attack happened just hours after the governor announced a new subway safety plan. MTA police officers were seen checking bags Thursday at Grand Central Terminal.
"We are looking at the main transit hubs, where the most people come to. We're going for volume," Hochul said.
Data analyzed by CBS New York Investigates shows many of the most-traveled stations are also where the most felony assaults happen. Times Square, Columbus Circle, and Penn Station, for example, were all in the top 10 in the last six years.
But many riders are just as concerned about stops with fewer people around.
"I wouldn't assume that where the National Guard is today, because they have been at the big stations, is where they are gonna be tomorrow," MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said. "We're not gonna say exactly where they're gonna be."
Troche said he hopes to see them at stops along the 2 line.
"She has to deploy, either National Guard ... it's an epidemic," Troche said.
The governor said police and National Guard members won't profile people and this is not stop and frisk. The New York Civil Liberties Union, on the other hand, says Hochul's plan will be used to profile and "accost" Black and brown New Yorkers.