NYC Transit Attacks on the Rise, Despite Increased NYPD Presence

By: Ilana Siyance

The New York Police Department has added hundreds of officers into the subways. Despite this, there has been a shocking spike in violence in the Big Apple’s underground— with at least seven incidents of slashings, beatings and shoving over just the past week.

“It’s just the way of life now in New York, it’s just terrible,” the mother of a teen victim of a recent subway attack told The NY Post. “You never know what could happen. I just tell him, now you have to be vigilant. I would like to ride a subway and be free — be free to roam around, be free to go to, you know, fun stuff in New York City. But if you have crimes like that going on you’re gonna feel a little fear. You’re gonna be like, ‘You know what? I don’t want to go anywhere.’”

As reported by the NY Post, the surge in subway violence escalated on Jan. 20, with 100 cops sent underground after several high-profile incidents. On Jan. 21, a 39-year-old straphanger was punched and slashed in an unprovoked attack on a Manhattan-bound D train passing through DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn about 2:45 a.m. On Friday, in another unprovoked incident, a 66-year-old woman riding a train in the Financial District was clobbered with a golf club by a masked attacker at about 7:30 a.m. The NYPD is still searching for the thug, and has released surveillance footage of the suspect.

The underground violence continued on Sunday, with a robbery at knifepoint on a southbound R train on Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens after 1 a.m. Per the Post, the 35-year-old victim told police two thugs approached him and verbally harassed him before one pulled out a knife. The other slugged him in the face and grabbed his cell phone. Police have arrested two men — Gerard Belgrave, 65, and Angel Rios, 58 — in connection with the attack and charged them with first-degree robbery and illegal possession of a weapon.

Later on Sunday, before 11 a.m., a 25-year-old subway rider was stabbed multiple times on a 5 train in the Bronx, near the Grand Concourse and East 149th Street, after getting into an argument with a stranger, police sources said. On the same day, a 17-year-old told police he was on a 3 train near Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue shortly after 10 p.m. when he was approached by four thugs, who punched him and stabbed him in the leg, landing him in the hospital.

There were two more attacks on Monday. In the morning, a 23-year-old woman was pushed into the side of a moving subway train at the 175th Street station in Manhattan. Bystanders helped police to arrest Markeese Brazelis, a 26-year-old homeless man who was responsible for at least two prior attacks.

Police charged him with assault and reckless endangerment in relation to the incident. Later on Monday, above ground, on an MTA bus in the Bronx, a 31-year-old woman traveling with three kids suffered cuts to her hands and had an unknown liquid tossed at her after getting into a dispute with a man. Per the NY Post, the 50-year-old suspect slashed the woman’s thumb with a knife. Police were still searching for the suspect, as of Monday afternoon.

The NYPD announced that this week 700 more cops will be sent down to patrol the rails overnight.