Man’s hand slashed in ‘homophobic’ attack on New York subway

An attack on the subway in New York City is being treated as a homophobic hate crime by the police. 

Just after 11pm on Friday (1 March) in Manhattan, a 27-year-old man was approached by another man – who he did not know – whilst on the northbound A train as it was pulling into Penn Station. 

According to the NYPD, the unknown assailant proceeded to hurl homophobic remarks at the victim before pulling a weapon out. 

The victim attempted to block the attack with his left hand, which resulted in it being slashed. 

He was taken to hospital and treated for his injury. 

The suspect has been described as a male in his 20s or 30s with a dark complexion who was wearing a puffer jacket and black hat. 

The suspect remains at large.   

The incident follows a string of violence on the New York City subway network, including one attack in Brooklyn which left a subway conductor with a deep gash in his neck another which saw a man stabbed whilst onboard a 4 train in the Bronx. 

NYPD statistics released in January shows that compared with the previous year, the city’s subway system saw an increase of 70 crimes (222 vs 152). 

“In demonstrating the NYPD’s ability to develop timely, intelligence-driven deployment plans, uniformed presence in the subway system was expanded in hot-spot areas and will be supported further over the coming weeks using a combination of Transit Bureau personnel and officers usually assigned to administrative duties department-wide,” the force said in the statistical release. 

“In addition to violent crime, officers will continue to focus on quality-of-life offenses, including fare evasion.” 

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber previously announced steps would be taken to improve safety on the subway system. 

“We’re putting cameras in every subway car, no one has ever done that before.” Lieber said, as quoted by NBC New York. “We’re putting cameras inside the whole fleet.”