NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Police released surveillance video Friday of a suspect in a Brooklyn subway slashing that left an off-duty MTA conductor hospitalized and led to renewed calls for more resources to address subway crime.
The 52-year-old conductor was aboard a southbound J-line train at the Cypress Street station in Cypress Hills around 11:20 p.m. on Wednesday when he was attacked at random, according to police.
A man came up to him and slashed him across the face with an orange box cutter, police said.
The conductor suffered a serious injury to his left eye, left ear and face. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Transit union TWU Local 100 identified the conductor as Gerard Sykes. They said he had to undergo two emergency surgeries at the hospital.
Following the attack and a series of other recent transit assaults, MTA and TWU Local 100 officials on Thursday escalated their calls for the city to deploy additional NYPD officers and mental health resources to the subway.
“This is frankly everybody’s worst nightmare come to life,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said. “This unprovoked attack is outrageous.”
“Just a horrifying attack,” New York City Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg said. “And this is happening every day.”
Feinberg said it’s time for Mayor Bill de Blasio to address subway violence.
“Putting on rose-colored glasses, pretending there’s no problem, is not a way to lead the city, and it’s not a way to lead the city into the recovery that we need,” Feinberg said.
The MTA has been calling on the NYPD for weeks to send more police officers into the city’s underground to help put an end to the violence and harassment, but the NYPD has refused. One official even accused the MTA of “fearmongering,” noting that crime is declining on the city’s subways.
De Blasio has agreed with the department, saying that he encourages his own children to take the subway daily.
“I wouldn't hesitate at all to take the subway. I will be taking the subway a lot. My children take the subway all the time,” the mayor said.
After visiting the slashed conductor at the hospital on Thursday, TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano pleaded for more officers and mental health resources.
“We just went upstairs, and we saw one of our members lying there, and he's all bandaged up, he's on a respirator, he's all sliced up,” Utano said. “Then you have a mayor that says, ‘Hey, you know, they're going overboard, there's really no problem.’ There is a problem.”
Police said the suspect in the Brooklyn slashing got off the train at the Crescent Street station. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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