Aaron Rodriguez, 35, has vowed he will keep calling out “shady behavior” on the subway despite being stabbed twice while defending an elderly stranger.
The Briarwood hotel chef told The Post he was heading home from a late night with friends around 5 a.m. Thursday when he spotted three suspects harassing a senior citizen on the southbound No. 7 train platform of the 82nd Street-Jackson Heights station in Queens. Rodriguez said the trio were yelling at the older man and calling him names when he decided to intervene.
“They were just yelling s–t at [the older guy] – calling him names and this and that,” Rodriguez said. “I was like, ‘Leave the guy alone!'”
That intervention angered the trio, who Rodriguez said said nothing before attacking him.
“They just started fighting with me and just started scrapping, so I did my best to hold it down to defend myself,” he recalled. “But at some point during the scrap, they ended up stabbing me a couple times.”
Rodriguez was stabbed twice in the stomach with an “unknown sharp object,” according to police. The victim said he did not even realize he had been wounded until the attackers had fled.
“I don’t even remember getting stabbed until after they left, after they broke up,” Rodriguez said.
“I was just about to get on the train, and I just felt warmth coming down,” he continued. “And then I lifted my shirt up and saw I got stabbed so I went down to the street from the platform and called the emergency ambulance.”
Rodriguez was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center where he remained Friday, awaiting surgery to ensure nothing was awry internally before doctors closed his wounds with stitches. He said he expected to be released over the weekend.
Despite the violent encounter, Rodriguez said nothing would change about his commute or his willingness to confront trouble on the rails.
“No, I don’t think that it’s going to change anything,” he said. “You know, I’m still going to be on high alert. If I see something I don’t like, I’m still gonna call it out. You know what I mean? It’s not gonna stop me. I’m not gonna let this affect me at all.”
He described himself as “not afraid at all” and “more mad than anything” as he hoped for justice.
“I would like that,” he said of the suspects’ arrests. “I feel people should also have a right to defend themselves. I wasn’t armed. They were.”
The NYPD released photos of the alleged attackers several hours after the incident, but the trio remained on the loose as of Friday. Police asked anyone with information to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website or on X @NYPDTips.
The attack came hours after Governor Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to conduct bag checks at major NYC transit hubs amid rising concerns about subway violence. Summer 2022 crime statistics from the NYPD showed surges in nearly every major category, intensifying public anxiety about safety in the system.
Rodriguez’s case adds to a string of violent incidents that have put New York City subway safety in the national spotlight, with riders and officials grappling with how to secure one of the world’s busiest transit networks.
The NYPD continues to seek the three suspects in the stabbing.