3 female victims slashed in NYC subway as knife crimes increase 126%

Three women were slashed in the New York City subway in different incidents on Sunday. Police are looking for a “maniac” suspect who might be behind the slashing spree. 

The first incident took place at around 4:20 p.m. on Sunday at the 86th Street and Lexington Avenue Station on the Upper East Side when two women, 19 and 48, were slashed in their legs as they were waiting for the train, according to police. 

“The girl came up to my booth to call the cops,” an MTA worker at the station said of one of the victims.“She was crying. She didn’t know the person. She said the person just walked up to her and slashed her for no reason. Then I got the police here.”

A short while after, a 28-year-old woman at the 4 train station at the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station was slashed on her right leg as she was sitting in a southbound car She was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. 

Authorities believe that all of the incidents could be connected to a single suspect because they were along the same subway line and only a few minutes apart. Police are on the hunt for the man, who was captured on surveillance camera leaving the scene of the attack. The suspect was last seen hopping over a turnstile to flee through the Chambers Street station before vanishing. 

The suspect is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing about 220 pounds. He was wearing a Boston Red Sox hat and a white T-shirt with an orange and yellow character on the front. 

“I’m confident that his identity will be obtained shortly,” said NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said during Monday’s police briefing. “I’m also confident that he’ll be apprehended shortly.”

According to police data, the number of people caught with illegal knives in the subway system has increased by 126% over the past four years.