Rash of subway attacks raises worries with 24-hour service set to return

NEW YORK >> In the span of 12 minutes early Friday, the police said, a group of men attacked commuters aboard a moving subway train, increasing concerns about public safety in New York City’s transit system just as 24-hour subway service is set to resume Monday.

The attackers, striking together on a southbound Lexington Avenue express train as it passed through several stations starting around 4:30 a.m., slashed three riders, two in the face and one in the back of the head, the police said. A fourth person was punched. The attackers took a phone and a wallet from one of the victims.

The three slashing victims, all men in their 40s, were hospitalized and in stable condition, according to the police. One of the attackers, they said, slashed at the three men as another urged him on.

The attacks came amid rising concern about crime in New York. Much of that concern has focused on the subway, which is about to resume nonstop service after it was curtailed last May, because of the pandemic, for the first time in the system’s history.

Despite the flurry of reported attacks, the overall trend in subway violence is less clear. Data suggests that crime per rider may be lower so far this year than in 2020, when ridership plunged amid a citywide lockdown, but up from 2019.

And now, even as the system gears up for a full return, at least a dozen attacks and other violent episodes have taken place on train cars or at stations this month alone.

The police initially said that two men in their 20s were responsible for the three early morning attacks. But at a news conference later on Friday, officials said the assaults were the work of a larger group that was involved in a fourth attack around the same time.

In that incident, the police said, a 48-year-old man was stabbed in the eye with a knife. Like the other victims, he was taken to a hospital, where he was undergoing surgery, the police said.

Jason Wilcox, an assistant police chief, said at the news conference that the investigation was continuing but that it appeared that the victims had been attacked by a group of men who were coordinating their actions and occasionally splitting into smaller groups.

“It looks like they were pairing off, mixing off, as the train was moving down along the 4 line this morning,” Wilcox said.

Four men were taken into custody in connection with the attacks, the police said. They had not been formally charged as of Friday afternoon, the police said.

The spate of assaults prompted transit officials to renew their call for more police officers in the subway. An additional 500 officers were deployed to the system in February after a homeless man was accused of stabbing four people in the subway.

The issue of subway crime was discussed at a mayoral debate Thursday. The eight leading Democratic candidates in the race used the occasion to express concern about the system’s safety, but they were split over whether more officers were needed.

Andrew Yang, Eric Adams, Kathryn Garcia, Shaun Donovan and Ray McGuire said they would expand the police presence in the system. Scott Stringer, Dianne Morales and Maya Wiley said they would not.

On Friday, Sarah Feinberg — who, as the New York City Transit Authority’s interim president, has consistently raised concerns about the system becoming a de facto shelter for homeless people — lashed out at Mayor Bill de Blasio over the attacks.

“The mayor is risking New York’s recovery every time he lets these incidents go by without meaningful action,” Feinberg said in a statement.

In a background note appended to Feinberg’s statement, the authority pointed out which of the mayoral candidates had expressed support for assigning more officers to the subway.

Feinberg was appointed to the authority’s board by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has frequently clashed with de Blasio, a fellow Democrat.

A spokesperson for de Blasio, Bill Neidhardt, responded to Feinberg, saying that the city had diverted officers from desk duty to subway platforms and trains.

“We’re going to keep putting massive resources into this fight to keep our subways safe,” Neidhardt said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the MTA sends out statements that point fingers and talk about mayoral politics.”