Straphanger beaten unconscious by stranger with metal pipe in latest NYC subway violence: cops
A Big Apple straphanger was repeatedly slammed in the head with a metal pipe at a Queens subway station — the latest example of the recent outburst of violence in the city’s troubled transit system.
The latest underground assault took place shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday at the Queensboro Plaza station when a thug walked up to the 31-year-old victim and struck him in the head “multiple times” in an unprovoked attack, according to police.
The bearded attacker then fled, leaving the victim unconscious.
He was taken to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center to be treated for several cuts to his head and was listed in stable condition, police said Monday.
The assault is just the latest in a recent outbreak of underground violence in the city subways, as New Yorkers continue to worry about their safety in the transit system.
The attack comes after a Brazilian tourist was stabbed in the back at the Queens Plaza station in yet another unprovoked attack on Thursday, according to police.
The 29-year-old victim was standing at the troubled station when a stranger ran up behind him and slashed him in the neck around 10:30 a.m., according to authorities and sources.
“People get stabbed at the end of this station, sometimes in the elevator,” an MTA worker at the Queens Plaza station told The Post on Monday. “It’s very, very bad.
“We need to think of the people that wake up at 4 in the morning and run to catch their train,” said the worker, who asked not to be identified. “They deserve a clean and safe train ride. Not to be looking over their shoulder and standing because the homeless [are] passed out on the seats.”
On Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed in the left thigh around 3:20 p.m. at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn, and was taken to NYU Langone Hospital where he was listed in stable condition, police said.
Also that day, a 58-year-old female MTA worker was slugged in the face by a deranged homeless man on a Lower Manhattan subway platform — with a bystander also clocked by the brute when he tried to help.
Last Tuesday, Iain Forrest, a 29-year-old musician, was entertaining commuters with his cello at a Midtown station when a crazed woman grabbed his metal water bottle and smashed him in the back of the head before walking away without a word.
Forrest said in an Instagram post on Sunday that he was done playing music in the subways after the heartbreaking and senseless attack — the second he was subjected to in less than two years.
“I have been punched, choked and now bashed in the head,” he wrote. “I love performing for you all in the subway, but I’m at my breaking point and I can’t take more injury or harm.”
His assailant remained on the loose on Monday.
The recent attacks come amid an uptick in transit crime in the city that has straphangers fearful.
“I see it all the time,” subway rider Ricky Mohammed told The Post. “Going to work, coming home from work — it doesn’t matter the time or who’s around. The train is not a safe place.
“No matter what the politicians try to tell you, it’s dangerous.”
Priscilla, a 27-year-old straphanger who asked that her name not be used, said she’s even told her boss that she won’t work at night because she’s afraid of riding the subway after hours.
“If I didn’t have to take the train to work I wouldn’t take the train at all,” she said. “People are getting robbed, hit in the head, beat up, stabbed, for no reason. They don’t even know you. Why would I want to go through that just to make it home?”
According to NYPD stats, transit crime dipped last year but was spiking so far in 2024.
Overall transit crime was up 22.6% since the start of the year through Feb. 11, compared to the same period last year — with felony assaults up more than 10%, the data shows.
The numbers include a more than 39% leap in grand larceny in the system.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy
