A video emerged of a straphanger on a New York City subway viciously elbowing the face of a fellow commuter who allegedly fell asleep on his shoulder and then began trading blows with the commuter’s friend early Tuesday, the New York Post reported.
The attacker could be seen and heard arguing in both Spanish and English with his victim and the victim’s friend. “I speak your f*cking dialect and I know who the f*ck you are… F*ck you! Go to sleep someplace … Shut the f*ck up already,” the attacker said to the victim’s friend, per the video. (RELATED: 37-Year-Old Man Stabbed In Neck While Waiting At Manhattan Subway Station)
The victim’s apparently calm intervention appeared only to further agitate the attacker, who ultimately delivered three blows on the victim’s face using his elbow, before coming to fisticuffs with the victim’s friend who had risen to the victim’s defense, as the video shows. The victim was dazed for a brief period and appeared to check his mouth for bleeding, as fellow commuters dispersed from the scene.
NYC commuter knocks out stranger who fell asleep on him on Queens subway https://t.co/Rw4UPWXoeG pic.twitter.com/fK3gyZTyEL
— New York Post (@nypost) August 26, 2023
The victim and his friend soon disembarked from the train and reported the attack to the police, per the report. The victim reportedly refused medical attention and his friend did not report any injury.
The attacker is wanted for assault, the report noted.
In a separate incident about twelve hours later the same day, an individual approached a male minor in Elizabeth Berger Park in Manhattan, “engaged in a verbal dispute, then punched him in the face & stabbed him in the chest,” the New York Police Department posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling on the public for information on the attacker.