Man Arrested in String of Box Cutter Slashings Near Union Square

Police say a 24-year-old Brooklyn man is in custody in connection with a string of box cutter slashings earlier this week that started on a subway in the East Village and ended on a street near Union Square.

Derrick McLeod was taken into custody Friday, two days after the slashing spree that left three people with slash marks on their cheeks.

Police said a fight started between two people on the No. 4 northbound train near Bleecker Street at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. The fight escalated and the slasher, who had a box cutter in his hand, punched the victim and slashed his right cheek, according to police.

The two stayed on the train until it stopped at Union Square, according to police. The slasher then got off and walked to 13th Street and Fourth Avenue where he asked a homeless man for $2. When the homeless man refused, he slashed the homeless man on the right cheek and fled, police said.

The two victims were treated at Bellevue Hospital Center, when a third slashing victim walked in, saying he was slashed on the right cheek by the same man at Union Square, according to police. McLeod had allegedly told him on the no. 6 train, "Don't look at me," before slashing him. 

Police said McLeod also is believed to have slapped a woman between the first and second slashings. 

McLeod has been arrested 30 times in the past, including on eight assault charges, according to police. He also has several restraining orders against him, and was on probation when he was picked up by police Thursday night, after he allegedly got into a fight with his girlfriend. 

McLeod was scheduled to be arraigned Friday night on five counts of assault and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in Wednesday's assaults. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.

-- Brynn Gingras contributed to this report 

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