Subway rider threatened with knife, pepper sprayed hours after police commissioner tours system
A subway rider was threatened with a knife and pepper sprayed by a suspect while onboard a train in Manhattan early Wednesday, police said.
According to police, it happened around 1:30 a.m. as a northbound 1 train approached the 59th Street-Columbus Circle station.
The 57-year-old victim told police that he received a small cut and was peppered sprayed by another man.
Police were also searching for six men wanted for beating a 17-year-old.
According to police, he was kicked and stabbed just after 4 p.m. Saturday at the Lexington Avenue-53rd Street station.
Investigators say the teen knew his attackers.
That attack happened at the same station that Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell visited Tuesday night.
“Obviously we’re concerned about the safety of New Yorkers,” Sewell said. “This subway has to be safe. I remember taking the subway myself to go to school. The people who go to school, the people who work in the city, and this is the lifeblood, it has to be safe.”
While the NYPD points out that violent crime levels are about the same as they were pre-pandemic, there has been a recent spike with three homicides reported in transit in the last two weeks.
The department added nearly a thousand more officers to the subway beat focusing on 15 train lines in 20 stations citywide.