NEW YORK — Four subway crime spree suspects, still riding the trains after slashing and slugging five riders in a series of vicious Manhattan assaults, were arrested Friday morning for the unprovoked attacks, police said.
Four of the victims were targeted by razor-wielding men aboard the southbound No. 4 train in a terrifying 12-minute stretch starting at 4:20 a.m., said cops.
The fifth was stabbed in his right eye aboard a train in the station at 59th Street and Columbus Circle around the same time, authorities said.
Police believe the suspects possibly paired off at times during the predawn rampage, with initial reports indicating an accomplice of the East Side slasher urged the man to slice his victims as a third man served as a lookout aboard the train between the Union Square and Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stations.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the investigation continued: “There could be somebody else involved in this.”
The latest outburst of violent mass transit mayhem prompted critics to lambaste Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“City Hall cannot continue to bury its head in the sand any longer,” said Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Pat Foye. “We need an immediate injection of police officers on platforms and on subway cars to deter attacks.”
Overall serious crime is down 43% in the subway system so far this year, but felony assaults have jumped 25%, according to NYPD data.
The suspects, who were not immediately identified, were arrested around 11:15 a.m. after Transit Bureau Capt. Kenny Gorman and a second cop boarded the uptown No. 1 train and recognized the quartet from subway station video footage, cops said.
All four were taken into custody without incident as they exited the train at the W. 79th Street station, police said. One of the suspects was freed without bail this past January after his arrest for a knife-point robbery that police described as “eerily similar” to Friday’s attacks.
The incidents began around 4:30 a.m. when one suspect slashed a 45-year-old man across the cheek as their train pulled into the Union Square station, cops said.
The victim jumped off the train and called police, with three suspects remaining onboard to slash a 40-year-old man and punch a 41-year-old man, cops said. Those two victims exited the train at the Astor Place station — but the assailants weren’t done.
The trio then demanded money from a 44-year-old subway rider, who was slashed in the back and robbed of his cellphone even after surrendering some cash, cops said. That victim left the train at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stop, as did the three suspects.
The final victim showed up at the transit police offices near Yankee Stadium around 5 a.m., and police tried to “drill down” on the details of what exactly happened after the fourth attacker plunged a knife into his right eye at Columbus Circle, said NYPD Assistant Chief Jason Wilcox.
The four victims on the No. 4 train were taken to nearby hospitals for their wounds, while the Columbus Circle victim was taken for surgery at an unidentified facility.
NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg and Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano joined in the criticism of City Hall over the rash of violence.
“If (Mayor de Blasio) needed a wake-up call, this is it,” read a statement from Feinberg. “Enough is enough. The mayor is risking New York’s recovery every time he lets these incidents go by without meaningful action.”
Utano, citing 15 serious subway assaults since Sunday, also pointed the finger at the mayor.
“The blood of these victim’s is on Mayor de Blasio’s hands,” said Utano. “These incidents ... are about one guy, who could take action but refuses to do so. And by this criminal inaction, Mayor de Blasio has created a crisis of confidence in our subway system.”
Mayoral spokesman Bill Neidhardt brushed off the MTA criticism as “finger-pointing.”
“We’re going to keep putting massive resources into this fight to keep our subways safe,” he said.
