NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Police have identified the victim of Sunday's fatal stabbing onboard a Manhattan subway train as a gifted soccer player who struggled with homelessness.
Akeem Loney, 32, was possibly asleep on a northbound 2 train just after midnight when he was stabbed in the neck during an unprovoked attack as the train pulled into 34th Street-Penn Station in Manhattan, police said.
He was rushed to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The victim was a street soccer phenom, according to former coach Reed Fox, who runs an organization that uses the sport as a way to lift people out of homelessness.
Fox told the Daily News that Loney aspired to play professionally and believes the victim may have been between jobs and sleeping on the subways after being kicked out of a relative's home.
The deadly incident is the latest in a spate of violence underground that comes as the MTA tries to get commuters back on mass transit.
While some crimes, like robbery, have decreased in the subway since last year, serious assaults have spiked by nearly 30% and there have been five murders.
One subway rider who lives on Long Island and works in Manhattan said the violence drives people away.
"You know that doesn't exactly promote ridership. The reality is there's a ton of homeless people on it. People are getting pushed on the tracks, people are getting stabbed, so I think that's a reality," the man, named Allen, said.
"I think that's utterly terrible, that shouldn't happen," another subway rider said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday described the stabbing as a "horrible incident."
"These individual incidents are very troubling, I understand they do give people pause and our job has to be to constantly get out there, show presence, reassure people through action," de Blasio said.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the investigation is in its early stages.
"We are asking anyone that may have seen anything or heard anything to call Crime Stoppers," Shea said. "It is very early in that investigation and we're not leaning in any direction. We have a long way to go and lot to learn about what exactly took place that night."
Police released surveillance images Sunday showing the suspect, who fled from the Penn Station stop, wearing a white baseball hat, a black face mask, a gray jacket, a white shirt with an orange and black checkered hood.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
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