A 70-year-old man slashed a 68-year-old woman’s face with a knife during a dispute at a Brooklyn subway station Saturday morning, police said.
The confrontation erupted around 9 a.m. On the mezzanine level of the Sheepshead Bay B and Q station, where the attacker had been holding an emergency exit door open, according to cops. He and the victim, 68, had a brief run-in before the violence escalated.
The man pressed a knife against the woman’s face, cutting her and causing her to bleed, a police source said. She refused medical attention at the scene despite her injury.
The attacker escaped by boarding a southbound Q train, cops said. A person of interest was later taken into custody, with charges pending, the source added.
The incident fits a troubling pattern of rising violence across New York City’s transit system. Felony assault in subways and buses has jumped 12% this year compared to the same period in 2023, climbing to 525 incidents from 470, according to the most recent NYPD data available through October 13. Misdemeanor assault has surged even higher, up 16% to 1,304 from 1,120.
The long-term trajectory is steeper. Felony assault has risen 18% from two years ago and a staggering 94% from seven years ago, the data shows. Misdemeanor assaults are up 11% over two years and 25% over seven years. The NYPD figures do not provide specific incident counts for those older comparison periods.
Overall transit crime has ticked up 2% this year even as enforcement has slackened. Arrests in the transit system dropped 5% to 22,847 from 23,977 during the same timeframe last year.
The Sheepshead Bay station assault unfolded in a setting familiar to regular riders. People frequently hold emergency exit doors open at subway stations and solicit money from incoming passengers seeking entry, a practice that can create tense encounters in confined underground spaces.
The motive for Saturday’s dispute remained unclear, and police did not identify either the suspect or the victim by name. The woman’s refusal of medical treatment at the scene suggested her wounds were not life-threatening, though the source did not specify their severity.
The attack drew renewed attention to safety conditions in a transit network that has struggled to reassure riders amid persistent high-profile incidents. Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD officials have repeatedly pledged additional patrols and outreach in recent months, even as arrest numbers have declined.
The spike in assaults comes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has invested in platform screen doors at select stations and expanded camera coverage across the system. Those technological fixes have done little to prevent the kinds of spontaneous interpersonal violence that characterized Saturday’s slashing.
Felony assault now accounts for a growing share of serious crimes underground, with the 525 incidents through mid-October representing a significant burden on detectives assigned to the NYPD’s Transit Bureau. The 94% increase over seven years ago underscores how sharply the problem has accelerated since before the pandemic.
The person of interest remained in custody Saturday evening as investigators prepared charges. Police did not immediately announce a court date.