Overview

• On Aug. 16 at about 3:55 a.m. a panhandler wielding a knife boarded a northbound D train at Kingsbridge Road station, robbed two passengers of phones and a backpack and slashed one in the face before fleeing.
• In an earlier incident on Aug. 9 a stranger argued with and then slashed a 29-year-old man on the southbound F train at 179th Street station, leaving him in stable condition at NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens.
• Investigators have not made any arrests in either attack and classify both cases as ongoing, urging witnesses and riders with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
• Surveillance footage from the Queens incident depicts a bearded man in his 30s wearing a blue button-down shirt over a gray T-shirt and a blue bucket hat, and police have appealed for help identifying him.
• These high-profile assaults have underscored safety concerns even as the 107th Precinct reports a 21.7% year-to-date drop in felony assaults and a 32% decline in transit crimes.