Warning: This story contains graphic imagery.
NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A subway conductor was slashed in the neck at a station in Brooklyn early Thursday in an unprovoked attack, police said as the search for the slasher continued.
The conductor, 59, had his head out a window of a southbound A train pulling into the Rockaway Avenue station in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 3:40 a.m. when he was slashed by a man on the platform.
The victim was transported to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where he was in stable condition.
The slasher, who was wearing a blue vest, quickly fled the scene and remained at large Thursday.
This appears to be the eighth attack on an MTA employee so far this year.
The transit workers' union TWU Local 100 identified the conductor as Alton Scott, who they said is a veteran transit worker with 24 years on the job. They said he "was making routine observations from the cab window of his train when he was viciously slashed in the neck."
Scott required 34 stitches to close "a gaping wound, including 25 to the deep end, and another nine sutures to help close it up," the union said, adding the slash was near his carotid artery.
"We're at a breaking point where we can't do our jobs safely," TWU Local 100 Union President Richard Davis said in a statement. "The city is in crisis, and the target is on our backs."
The union called on the MTA and city officials to "prioritize the deployment of resources to combat these senseless acts of violence," including the MTA's police force of 1,000 officers.
Alina Ramirez, a union spokesperson, stressed that the union did not authorize any official work stoppage or slowdown, despite claims posted on social media.
She said members working on the subway line where the attack occurred reported for work as usual Thursday but remained “on standby” in the hours after the attack until they received safety assurances from transit management, as is typical following such incidents.
Ramirez said workers have since resumed normal operations on the subway line.
It was just this week that the MTA unveiled new safety barriers at the 125th Street 4/5/6 station in Harlem with the aim of protecting conductors from such attacks. The pilot stanchions create a “no standing” zone that is supposed to deter people from standing in the area where the conductor’s cabin stops.
“We hope that adding additional visibility elements create a more well-defined zone of safety and security around our hard-working subway conductors to ensure they can do their work without fear of being attacked on the platform while they simply try to do their jobs,” Demetrius Crichlow, the senior VP of subways for NYC Transit, said Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.