Another day, another slashing in New York — or, in this case, two slashings. The city’s least appealing trend was still going strong on Thursday afternoon, when a man in Soho and a man on the Upper West Side were attacked by knife-wielding strangers.
The first incident occurred at around 2 p.m. outside of the Supreme store on Lafayette, where people were waiting in line for the opportunity to purchase items from the clothing brand’s new collection. The New York Post reports that a 20-something man in a ski mask slashed a 21-year-old shopper across the cheek as he left the store. According to what some witnesses told NBC New York, “The suspect was a robber trying to steal the clothes the man had just bought.” Meanwhile, Post witnesses say that “the man was slashed after a dispute over skipping the lines.” Everyone agrees that “there was a lot of blood.” The assailant ran away after the attack, and his victim was taken to a hospital for stitches.
Just a couple of hours later, a 33-year-old guy walking on West 88th Street near Columbus was “approached from behind” by a man who “pressed a sharp object into his lower back.” As the NYPD told NBC New York, “The assailant demanded he empty his pockets and then stabbed the victim as he took a Kindle and headphones before running away.” The victim, whose shoulder was reportedly injured, was hospitalized in “serious but stable condition.” The suspect — described as “in his mid 20s, 5’9” and 160 pounds with a thin build and was least seen wearing a blue jogging jacket, blue jeans, black Nike sweatshirt, black sneakers and a red baseball cap” — is still at large.
These attacks came around 24 hours after a teen boy used a box cutter to slash a busboy at Greenwich Village’s Silver Spurs. The busboy, 25-year-old Bobby Barbot, needed more than 100 stitches to repair the damage. His attacker is also still out there.
