Hammer Attack in Manhattan Subway Station Investigated as Possible Hate Crime – NBC New York

A subway passenger was hit in the head with a hammer after he and another man allegedly collided on a platform in Manhattan, police said.

The two men got into a verbal dispute after 9:00 pm inside the 14th Street Station on the 1/2/3 Line. The argument occurred after they bumped into each other, according to authorities. After exchanging words, one of the men pulled out a hammer and hit the victim in the head, they added.

The man with the hammer fled, police said. The victim, an Asian man, was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where police described his condition as stable.

Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, according to a senior NYPD official.

An investigation into the attack is ongoing. No arrests have yet been made, and the officer is looking for a man who was wearing a red leather jacket, red shoes and blue jeans.

The incident comes nearly two weeks after New York City began its new “Subway Safety Plan,” a 17-page program to combat the city’s massive rise in traffic crime.

But instead of going down, major traffic crimes rose 30 percent, New York City Police data from the last week of February showed, and felony assaults nearly doubled. According to system figures NYPD CompStatthere were 55 serious traffic crimes in the week of February 21, up from 42 the previous week and 18 in the same week a year earlier.

The New York Police Department also noted a sharp increase in law enforcement, with arrests up 64% and criminal citations up nearly 10%.

The headlines about the violence have been relentless: a woman brutally beaten in the head with a hammer, another woman assaulted with a bag of feces on her face, as well as stabbings, knife attacks and shootings and all other forms of violence.

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