NYPD: Passenger assaulted, train conductor struck with bottle in separate subway attacks
NEW YORK -- Police are on the search for suspects involved in two separate subway attacks Friday.
Passengers were in a panic on a northbound F train at the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street station around 1:30 p.m. after a subway rider was punched repeatedly then slashed in the face. Carlos, from Queens, caught the 43-year-old victim and helped clean up his wounds.
"He basically told me he don't remember that guy punching him or anything. It just happened so fast and abruptly, and the only people who saw it were the people on the train," he said.
Witnesses are saying a verbal altercation started when the slasher, a man police say is in his 20s, asked the man why he was looking at his girlfriend. Then police say he and a woman believed to be the girlfriend ran off.
"It was just so calm at the moment, but then I saw them two running out that way," Carlos said.
Hours earlier, just after 8 a.m., at the 81st Street--Museum of Natural History station, the MTA says a female train conductor was hit in the face by a bottle while working on a northbound B train. Police say unknown liquid got on her face but wasn't caustic. She was sent to a local hospital.
Upper West Side straphangers say they're watching their backs, thinking more of a police presence on subways may help.
"Sometimes you see officers and sometimes you don't, so I think having them as a presence can make you feel more comfortable," Andreas Brommer, from Seattle, said.
"As a woman and it was my first time on the subway, I wouldn't have gone by myself," said Kylie Brommer, from Seattle.
"I'm also a woman, a female in New York City. So I always try to take care of myself, be careful, pay attention to where I am and my surroundings, and believe that crime could happen anywhere," one rider said.
"I watch my back everywhere, because of my kids also. Anywhere I am, I'm always looking behind," said Jasmine Gonzalez.
"You have to watch your back whether it's on the train or just in the street," said Jeremy Gonzalez.
"Attacking a conductor. I can't imagine why that would be. That seems much more random and weird and strange, which is more frightening in that sense," one man said.
The victim who was slashed on the F train was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. His condition is unknown.
The 39-year-old subway conductor who was assaulted was said to be in stable condition.
Anyone with any information on either incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
