Man shouting homophobic slurs slashes victim with box cutter in horrific subway attack

New York City Police are searching for a man who attacked another subway rider with a box cutter after making a homophobic comment.

WABC-TV reports that the suspect got on a northbound A train at 14th Street in Manhattan around 11 p.m. on Friday night. As the train approached the 34th Street Penn Station stop, the man approached another rider making homophobic remarks, according to WNBC. Police say the suspect took out a box cutter and slashed the victim’s left hand as he tried to fend off his attacker.

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Man stabbed by youths reportedly shouting anti-gay comments in NYC gayborhood

The victim was punched and then stabbed in his left leg.

The 27-year-old victim got off the train at Penn Station, while the attacker remained on the uptown train. The victim called the police and was taken to Bellevue Hospital.

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On Saturday, the NYPD released a photo of the suspect, shown wearing a gray puffer jacket with brown fur trim. According to WABC, the man is described as being in his 20s or 30s.

Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.

The attack came amid a reported 11 percent rise in assaults on the NYC subway system this year, including three murders, according to WNBC. Last week, a subway conductor survived an attack in which his neck was slashed. On Friday afternoon, a 60-year-old man was stabbed while riding a train in the Bronx. Sunday saw two more instances of violence in subway stations, one in which a 64-year-old man was kicked onto the tracks and another in which a 17-year-old woman was repeatedly punched in the face by another woman.

On Monday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said she had met with New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and the NYPD’s Chief of Transit Michael Kemper and plans to announce new safety measures, including installing cameras on every subway car by the end of the year, on Wednesday.

In her State of the State address in January, Hochul proposed expanding the list of crimes that can be charged as hate crimes in New York and announced a plan to increase funding for the Securing Communities Against Hate initiative amid a 90 percent rise in reported hate crimes in the state between 2020 and 2022.