New York City’s spate of apparently unprovoked attacks on strangers continued over the weekend, with an unidentified black assailant hitting another man in the back of the head with a hammer on a Manhattan subway platform.
The attacker appeared to swing the hammer with full force, hitting his 44-year-old victim so hard that the bleeding man fell onto the tracks. Police on Sunday posted a Twitter message showing video footage of the incident and seeking the public’s help in identifying the perpetrator.
?WANTED for ASSAULT: On 8/21/21 at approx. 9:08 PM, at the Union Sq subway station ‘N/R’ line @NYPD13PCT Manhattan. A dispute with a 44 Y/O male vic led to the suspect hitting him on the head with a hammer. Any info call or DM NYPDTips at 800-577-TIPS. Reward up to $3,500. pic.twitter.com/RIajhIEkdM
The attack occurred after 9pm on Saturday at the Union Square subway station. The assailant appeared to be a bearded black man wearing a white baseball hat and a black T-shirt printed with the words, “I am black history.” The victim was pulled from the tracks by other subway passengers and taken to a local hospital for treatment of his head injury.
Police told the New York Post that before the attack, the suspect told the other man, “Don’t look at me. If you come any closer, I’m going to hit you.” As the man walked away, the attacker went to a nearby bench and pulled a hammer from his bag. He then came back and struck the victim from behind with the hammer.
The incident marked the latest in a series of scary attacks on New York pedestrians over the past week. Last Sunday, a black man later arrested and identified as Aaron Garcia, attacked 50-year-old Miguel Solorzana with a hatchet at a bank ATM. Garcia had allegedly threatened other New Yorkers in recent days, in one case with a hammer. Police reportedly told another bank customer whom he’d allegedly threatened with the hatchet that Garcia was “hunting” and “wanted to hurt somebody.”
Man Attacked By Hatchet-Wielding Robber In New York City!Warning: graphic! Police have released this video and are asking for your help in identifying this criminal! It happened inside a Chase bank in the financial district of Manhattan. pic.twitter.com/OB38pwwYzh
The hammer attack at Union Station was the second such incident on a New York subway platform in two days. On Friday, a black man wielding a metal stick beat a 58-year-old woman at the Church Avenue G station in Brooklyn. As in the other two attacks, the man came up from behind before swinging his weapon. He whacked the woman repeatedly in the head, leg and arm, police said. Like the hammer-swinging suspect, the metal-rod-wielding assailant also remains at large.
Man beats woman with metal stick on Brooklyn subway platform https://t.co/Hq1rb6ercKpic.twitter.com/rC0iEfHtIN
New York City has seen a surge in unprovoked attacks, particularly on people of Asian descent this year, including a May incident in which a black woman assaulted two Asian women with a hammer in Times Square.
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