CBS2 Exclusive: Woman Speaks Out After Being Slashed On Subway In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A woman now too scared to show her face was speaking out Wednesday night about being slashed in the knee and hand by a stranger on the subway – in part of a growing crime trend in New York City.
The victim spoke about her terrifying ordeal for the first time exclusively to CBS2's Jessica Moore.
With the woman's attacker on the run and still too scared to show her face, Lydia Gonzalez remembers the morning commute that turned violent in an instant.
"This one looks like she's ready for a fight," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez was taking the No. 6 Train to work around 6 a.m. Thursday, when she said a fellow passenger went ballistic over her choice of a seat.
"It seemed like it bothered her that someone was sitting beside her, you know, and she was like, kept fidgeting, like she didn't want anyone touching her or sitting beside her, and so she tells me I need to get up and find another seat," Gonzalez said.
Commuters tried to intervene, and even convinced the woman to move to the other side of the train. But a few minutes later, police said the attacker pulled a box cutter from her bag.
"She was lunging at me to try to get at my face, and so I put my leg up to give her distance away from my face, to protect my face," Gonzalez said. "But when I put my leg up to get the distance, that's when she cut my leg, and at that point, the doors opened, so she ran out of the train at that point."
According to the NYPD, subway slashings in the city are up by 6.5 percent this year compared to last. Total transit crime in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx is up by as much as 16 percent compared with last year.
In the past month alone, a woman was slashed in the face on a train while carrying her baby, and a man was slashed at a subway station in the Bronx.
Gonzalez said she will not be taking the subway again anytime soon, and said people who do must pay attention at all times.
"Here's somebody who's, you know, agitated, walking with a weapon," Gonzalez said. "You know, next time it could've been worse."