MTA worker has teeth knocked out by subway vagrant, says he’s afraid to return to work: ‘A lot of violence’
A 44-year-old Big Apple transit worker who had two of his teeth knocked out by a short-on-cash subway vagrant said Sunday that he’s now afraid to return to work.
The victim, whose name is being withheld by The Post, said he’s still laid up from his painful injuries.
“It’s crazy,” the victim said of the Jan. 17 attack. “The guy said he has money but his car was not working. So, I checked his card and the card only had 30 cents on it. I told him, ‘Sorry, you don’t have enough money.’ Then he suddenly punched me in the face and said, ‘Where did my money go?’
“Like in 10 seconds all this happened.”
The NYPD on Sunday released surveillance footage of the brute in the attack, which unfolded around 7 p.m. at the Herald Square/34th Street station in Manhattan. The attacker was still on the loose Sunday.
He has a beard and moustache, and wore a dark coat with a light green hoodie
The transit worker, who has only been on the job since late 2023 and has three young children, said he’s still out of work due to his injuries and is questioning whether it’s safe to go back.
“I’m very afraid,” he said. “My mouth is open right now. Two teeth are missing. It’s still bleeding, I have headaches. Sometimes I feel I should leave the job, that it’s not for me, because I have my family.
“For some reason he was so angry and he just punched my face and ran away.”
The victim was treated at Bellevue Hospital following the unprovoked attack.
The city subways have seen a recent spike in violence, despite an overall drop in transit crime.
There were 49 felony assaults reported in the city’s subway system from the start of the year through Feb. 2, down from the 58 recorded during the same period last year, NYPD statistics show.
The first week of February saw a particularly violent stretch of violence in the subway system, with 11 felony assaults reported, compared to just six during the same stretch in 2024, according to the data.
The MTA worker slugged at the Herald Square station said he had noticed the uptick.
“A lot of violence,” he said. “It just happened to me right now.”
Anyone with information about his attacker is urged to call the NYPD Crime Stopper’s Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS or at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org.
