Two are stabbed at Metro stations

Attacks on Red Line platforms do not appear to be related, according to LAPD.

Two people were stabbed Thursday at Metro Red Line stations, according to police, the latest in a surge of violent crimes committed at the agency’s facilities.

A man was stabbed around 5 p.m. while standing on a platform at the Hollywood/Western station in East Hollywood, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Police responded to reports of an assault with a deadly weapon. The man, who was seriously injured, was treated by paramedics, then taken to a hospital, according to LAPD Officer J. Chavez.

The victim told police a man stabbed him after they got into an argument, police said. The suspect remains at large.

Another man was stabbed Thursday after 8 p.m. while standing on the Red Line platform at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, said Nicholas Prang, an LAPD spokesperson. That victim was taken to a hospital with injuries to the neck and torso. The attacker was gone by the time officers arrived, the LAPD said.

The stabbings do not appear to be related, the department said.

Metro has seen a dramatic increase in violent crimes. From 2021 to 2022, there was a 24% jump in cases of aggravated assault, robbery, rape and murder, according to the transit agency’s latest yearly report. The Red Line had by far the most crimes, at 687, nearly twice as many as on the Blue Line, the report said.

In January, a teenage boy was fatally stabbed and shot near the 7th Street/Metro Center station downtown. Weeks later, a man was stabbed to death near an escalator at the Westlake/ MacArthur Park station, where Metro and law enforcement have sought to reduce crime by playing loud classical music, installing brighter floodlights on the platform, adding security cameras and blocking an exit where people were known to use drugs.

The classical music at Westlake/MacArthur Park, part of a pilot program implemented in January, is meant to deter “people from bedding down or sheltering in place at the station,” Metro spokesperson Patrick Chandler said. The tactic has been divisive, with some saying it is inhumane and doesn’t address the root causes of public safety problems.

Recent measurements taken with a handheld meter found that the music was played at an average of 83 decibels, on par with gaspowered mowers and leaf blowers. Levels of 80 to 85 dB can damage hearing after two hours of exposure, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Metro’s head of security has sought to expand the in-house force of nearly 200 transit officers, some of whom are armed. Additionally, transit officials committed $122 million over the last year to place 300 unarmed “ambassadors” throughout the system to report crimes and help passengers.