A man was slashed across the back at a subway entrance to Penn Station Friday in an apparent drug transaction gone bad, police sources say.
The man was slashed at the northwest corner of 34th Street and 7th Avenue as he was entering the station for the downtown 1, 2, 3 trains late Friday afternoon, according to police sources.
Sources say it appears the victim and the suspects knew each other, and they may have been arguing over a small amount of money in a drug transaction.
The victim was taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital, formerly known as Roosevelt Hospital, where he's in stable condition, authorities say.
The entrance to the subway outside Penn Station was taped off by police during rush hour Friday as they investigated.
Earlier Friday, another man was slashed as he left the Chambers Street subway station in the morning. In that case, police said a suspect came up from behind him and demanded money.
"The victim says 'I don't have the money,' he's then slashed from behind by the individual," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. "He did not get a good look at the individual."
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The slashing comes on the heels of an uptick of slashings and stabbings across the city: they've spiked more than 20 percent this year, prompting the NYPD to roll out a new initiative to track and analyze the crimes more closely and tamp down on them.
The NYPD has said that most of that increase is being driven by a large number of cases in the Bronx and in public housing, with incidents described as emotion-driven and examples of domestic violence -- not random acts of violence.
