Woman, 72, hit in face in attack at New York subway station: police

A 72-year-old woman was punched in the face by another straphanger in a Bronx subway station Thursday night, police said.

The senior citizen was getting off the elevator at the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium station around 7:15 p.m. Thursday when another woman began punching her repeatedly in the face, causing bruising and swelling, police said.

The attacker then fled on foot, police said.

The elderly woman was taken to Lincoln Medical Center in stable condition with a minor cut to her eye, authorities said.

Police released photos of the suspect, who was still at large Friday afternoon.

She is described as being around 35 to 40 years old, has a dark complexion, is around 1.60 meters tall and weighs around 90 kilograms.

She was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, tan pants, black sandals, a black blanket around her head, and was carrying a black book bag at the time of the incident.

The motive for the attack was unclear Friday.

About 50 minutes later, a 19-year-old man was critically injured in a knife attack as he walked up the stairs at the Fulton Street and Van Siclen Avenue train station in Cypress Hills, authorities said.

The teen was leaving the J and Z station when he exchanged words with an unknown man who then stabbed him multiple times with a knife, cops said.

The nature of the collision was not immediately known.

The victim was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, where he was in critical but stable condition.

The suspect, believed to be in his 20s, fled the scene and was not caught.

According to police, he has a light complexion, is about 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighs about 160 pounds, is slim and has black hair tied back in a ponytail.

He was last seen wearing a red shirt with “CK” written on the front, black Adidas sweatpants, black sneakers and a black sweater over his right shoulder.

Earlier this week, a 36-year-old man was attacked and robbed on a subway platform in Queens as he confronted a fellow passenger for vaping on the train, police said.

The straphanger was on a southbound R train approaching 36th Street around 4 p.m. Tuesday when he asked the man sitting next to him to stop smoking, police said.

That sparked an argument, police said.

As the train pulled into the station and both men got off, the smoking driver hit the victim in the head several times, police said.

He then grabbed $200 from the victim’s pocket and ran away, authorities said.

The injured man was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he required stitches for a cut to his head and was in stable condition.

According to police, the attacker, who is still at large, is approximately 25 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall and 160 pounds, with dark skin, thin build, brown eyes, black hair and facial hair.

He was last seen wearing a red durag, a black tank top, pink shorts and blue and white sneakers, police said.

All three incidents came days after a crazed 43-year-old man, Norton Blake, allegedly struck a 60-year-old woman dozens of times with his own stick during a heinous attack caught on video at West 116 Street and Lenox Avenue station, the police said.

Meanwhile, crime in the city’s subway system has fallen by just over 4% so far this year – with 1,468 incidents reported on the tracks since the start of 2023, compared to 1,534 during the same period in 2022, according to the latest updated Data shows Sunday.

The number of criminal attacks on the rails is about the same as last year’s total, with two more reported this year – 378 compared to 376, the figures show.

Robberies are down about 10.5% – with 359 incidents reported so far this year, compared to 401 last year.

“We are very encouraged,” NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper told reporters during an unrelated news conference Tuesday. “We are having a very, very good year and it didn’t just happen. A lot of hard work, a lot of great work.”

He also cited a “dramatic increase” in arrests and citations by NYPD officers in the subway system this year.

“We did this by increasing presence and increasing enforcement,” Kemper said. “And we owe this success to this concentration and attention. All credit goes to the men and women of the NYPD, our police officers.”