NYCHA Negligence Led To Young Woman's BK Stabbing: Suit

BROOKLYN, NY — There's blood on the city's hands for a stabbing at an unsecured NYCHA development that "forever altered" a young woman's life, according to a new lawsuit filed last week in Brooklyn.

NYCHA officials need to take residents' safety seriously — and provide Sophia Rostom "justice" after a faulty lock allowed her attacker to stab her 14 times at Brooklyn's Farragut Houses, argued Rostom's lawyers John Morgan and Moses Ahn of Morgan & Morgan attorneys in the filing.

"To this date, Ms. Rostom suffers from severe physical and psychological trauma stemming from the incident," her lawyers, Ahn and Morgan said.

Rostom, a mother and trained medical technician, was visiting a friend March 28, 2023, in Farragut Houses on Bridge Street near Prospect Street when she was attacked by a man who had entered through a broken, ineffective or otherwise unlocked entry door, according to Ahn and Morgan.

The man stabbed Rostom 14 times in the head, heart, lungs, arms, leg and buttocks — causing the young woman to "lost nearly half of her blood," Rostom's lawyers contend.

And it's a vicious attack made possible by pervasive NYCHA failings, the lawyers argued.

A study by the city's Comptroller released in November found significant defects in NYCHA properties' security mechanisms — namely that entrance doors were propped open and locks were broken on up to 40 percent of properties.

The attack was entirely "foreseeable" given this study and a history of violence at Farragut Houses, according to the lawsuit.

“All landlords — from the owner of a single home residence to the nation’s largest public housing authority — have a responsibility to ensure residents and guests will be safe," Ahn and Morgan said.

"This lawsuit is about more than getting justice for Ms. Rostom. NYCHA needs to take immediate steps to improve safety, not only for the 3,000-plus residents of the Farragut Houses, but also for all 360,000 residents of its properties and its guests."