The NYPD is looking for two men who allegedly attacked a good Samaritan who intervened in their harassment of an elderly woman at a Bronx subway station early Thursday, hours after New York's governor and the head of the MTA outlined sweeping new state efforts, including deploying the National Guard, to address surging subway crime.
According to police, the 53-year-old victim spotted the men harassing the woman when he got off a northbound No. 2 train at the Pelham Parkway station shortly before 1 a.m. He stepped in, and was slashed in the hand with an unknown object, the NYPD said. The two suspects ran off. The victim was taken to a hospital, where he says he received eight stitches to close his wound.
The Bronx attack was the second transit assault within a matter of hours after Hochul's announcement of a new five-point plan to use state resources to help shore up subway safety. Barely after she finished, reports came in of an MTA employee hit with a bottle as a southbound 4 train was pulling into the 149th Street and Grand Concourse station, also in the Bronx. The conductor was taken to Lincoln Hospital with minor injuries; the suspect ran off.
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Earlier this week, a man was kicked to the tracks at Penn Station. Then another rider was victimized in an unprovoked hammer attack at a Queens station, while one was attacked with an umbrella on the Upper East Side.
Last week, a subway conductor was knifed in the neck in Brooklyn, a 27-year-old was slashed in the hand in Manhattan and a 61-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach in the Bronx in three unrelated incidences of transit violence within 36 hours. A recent trio of homicides also made headlines. The union, and the public, have expressed outrage.
Ahead of the state's announcement, Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to reimplement heightened security measures at select stations across the five boroughs.
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Police in New York have long conducted random bag checks at subway entrances, though passengers are free to refuse and leave the station, raising questions of whether the searches are an effective policing tactic in a subway system that serves over three million riders per day.
Adams did not join Hochul at the podium Wednesday due to what the governor said was a scheduling conflict, but he did appear on four different TV stations and displayed a poster to highlight his focus on repeat offenders.
"We don’t have a surge in crime, we have a surge in recidivism," said Adams.
Adams didn't say which stations would see enhanced security, but according to City Hall, police will be deploying 94 bag screening teams to 136 subway stations each week. Intelligence, threat assessments and passenger volume will factor into the locations of the NYPD checkpoints, City Hall said. State-run bag checks began rolling out Wednesday.
Adams also said the city continues to review metal-detection technology for subway entry, but nothing is imminent.
Overall, crime has dropped in New York City since a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, and killings are down on the subway system. But rare fatal shootings and shovings on the subway can put residents on edge.
Recent NYPD data paints a concerning picture, with 2023 seeing the highest number of subway assaults since at least 1996. Over that year, there were 570 assaults, marking a slight increase from the previous year and averaging about 1.5 incidents daily.
But NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper says progress is being made. An infusion of 1,000 more officers into the subway system — done in direct response to a January spike that featured a 45% jump in crime, according to Kemper — led to a 17% reduction in crime in February, Kemper said.
For the year, subway crime is still up 13% compared to 2023, with assaults on the transit system up 11%. NYPD transit police are investigating 86 assaults, up from last year's 77.
Anthony Izaguirre of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
