Police are investigating to see if the man who slashed a 21-year-old in the face in a Queens subway train on Sunday afternoon attacked another man beforehand, according to authorities.
The NYPD said that a 19-year old man was walking at Beach 22nd Street and Mott Avenue when three men approached and cut him. The spot is not far from where three men boarded an A train before gashing a 21-year-old in the face a few minutes later, but it's not clear if the two attacks are related.
The victim in the second attack, Anthony Durden, said that attack left him with a cut that took 20 sutures along his jaw line so painful, it's hard to talk.
"If I'd have looked up a little more, it would have been my throat (that was slashed)," he said.
Durden told News 4 he was riding home from New York City Comic Con that morning when three men got on the train. One of them -- a man with "evil in his eyes -- stood close to him on an otherwise empty car and slashed him in the face.
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"I got up and said, 'Yo, you just slashed me in my face,'" said Anthony Durden. "And he was laughing. He smirked and said, 'Yeah.'"
Durden said he was able to run off the train at the Beach 60th Street stop to alert a conductor. The attacker and the other two people on the train got off before NYPD officers got on scene.
The NYPD is asking anyone with information about the suspect in either attack to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.