New Yorkers add crime to pandemic fears
In virus second wave, knifings, subway assaults put city even more on edge
As New York City struggles with a second wave of the coronavirus, it is also having to contend with a wave of violent crime.
A man was stabbed on 34th Street in Manhattan early on Sunday — four blocks from where a 39- year- old man was fatally stabbed outside a pizzeria in one of two knifings hours earlier in the United States’ biggest city.
The latest victim, a 51- year- old, was found bleeding profusely in the street near Eighth Avenue after a fight around 8: 30 am, police sources told the New York Post.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition.
Another man was stabbed late on Saturday on a train pulling in to Grand Central Terminal.
About an hour after that attack, a 53- year- old subway rider was slashed in the face after he had a fight with two men that started on a downtown train and continued on the platform when the train pulled into Grand Central.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assault, while the slashing suspect was at large, sources said.
Violent crime in the city’s subways is unfolding while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tries to cope with an eight- month plunge in revenue due to reduced ridership from the pandemic.
“Less riders can certainly give way to certain crimes,” Edward Delatorre, a former transit police chief, told The New York Times. “A barren station or a shutdown could be inviting for certain crimes.”
On Thursday, a 40- year- old woman was shoved onto the tracks in the Union Square subway station in Manhattan as a train pulled in. She fell between the rails, police said, sustaining only minor injuries.
The suspect, Aditya Vemulapati, 24, surrendered to a transit worker and was charged with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment.
On Wednesday night, a man was pushed onto the tracks at the 42nd Street- Bryant Park station by another man after the victim refused to give him money, authorities said. The victim was able to pull himself onto the platform. A suspect, Justin Pena, was arrested and charged with attempted murder.
“It’s not fair to the people who are using this system,” Sarah Feinberg, NYC Transit interim president, said at a news conference on Thursday. “It’s not fair to the woman who experienced this today. We have got folks in this city who desperately need mental healthcare.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has blamed the latest increase in crime partly on business and school closures due to the pandemic.
‘ Six months’ at minimum
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference on Sunday that he believes it will take longer to distribute a COVID- 19 vaccine, two of which recently were shown to be more than 90 percent successful in clinical trials.
“People say: ‘ Don’t worry, there’s a vaccine.’ I will wager you dollars for doughnuts, it’s six months at a minimum before you hit critical mass with a vaccine,” he said.
Alfred Titus Jr, an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former NYPD homicide detective, told Fox News: “We had bail reform, then defunding the police, which cut the amount of officers on the streets and the overtime that could be made, and now we have COVID- 19.”
According to NYPD CompStat, there had been a 101 percent increase in the number of shooting victims for the year to Nov 15 over the same period last year.