Man slashed in subway attack
Suspect asked ‘You good?’ before gashing vic’s face riding uptown 2 train
A Manhattan man says a stranger slashed him in the face on a subway train after asking him if he was “good.”
Fernanda Atkins told the Daily News he was sitting on an uptown No. 2 train heading toward the 72nd St. station around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday when his attacker came into the train car.
The attacker ambled through the car before dropping his question on Atkins, who had never seen the suspect before.
“You good? You straight?” the stranger asked Atkins in an account confirmed by police.
“I said ‘Yes,’” Atkins told The News from his Upper West Side home Saturday.
Police said the man then exited the train at the W. 72nd St. and Broadway stop and then jumped back in.
He then pulled out a razor and raked it across Atkins’ face, leaving a gnarly gash across the bridge of the victim’s nose.
The man took off, leaving Atkins bleeding on the train.
“Somebody helped call the police,” the wounded electrical engineer recalled. “It was weird, unexpected.”
Medics took Atkins to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, where the deep gash was stitched up and he was released.
Atkins, a single dad and Essex County College grad, has lived in both New Jersey and New York over the years, and moved to the Upper West Side four months ago.
He was riding the train from Penn Station when he was attacked.
“I’m not scared to take the subway again,” he said. “But next time, I’ll be prepared — looking around me and stuff like that. I’ll make sure nobody jumps on me.”
The attack on Atkins’ comes as the NYPD continues to fight an 18% jump in assaults in the city’s subway system.
By the end of November, cops were investigating 497 assaults in the city’s transit system — compared with the 418 assaults reported last year. Cops are also dealing with a 21% jump in robberies, from 459 last year to 556.
Police on Thursday released surveillance images of the attacker, who was wearing a gray hoodie, blue jacket and multicolored pants.