A suspect has been taken into custody in connection with a slashing incident on a northbound D train at the 42nd Street-Bryant Park station Thursday morning, police said.
Video surveillance of the suspect, who got away after the incident, was released Thursday night.
Police have not yet identified the man in custody, but said he was picked up by officers in the Bronx Friday morning. So far, no charges have been filed, police said.
The victim, 38, was slashed in the face, chest and hands with a box cutter at about 10:15 a.m., Assistant Chief Vincent Coogan of the NYPD Transit Bureau said.
Coogan said investigators believe the men, who were strangers, may have boarded the train at West Fourth Street and gotten into an argument. That’s when the suspect, in his 30s or early 40s, pulled out the razor and attacked, he said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the dispute was about.
“The victim did get off the train, follow the perpetrator, who slashed him up to the street area, where he got away,” Coogan said, adding the suspect “blended into the crowd” on the street.
He added that a box cutter was recovered.
Jaquan Allen, 26, was on a train when it suddenly halted at 42nd Street, and he was forced off. He then noticed a trail of blood.
“I didn’t know what happened,” said Allen, of Morrisania, who works as a sound engineer on 48th Street. “It worried me, it was chaotic.”
Irene Malinowski, 72, was walking by 42nd Street at about 10:30 a.m. when she saw a man covered in blood on the street.
“He was dripping with blood,” said Malinowski, who lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, and was visiting the city for a reunion with friends. “It was dripping from his face and his chest.”
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center in stable condition, cops said.
Northbound B and D trains were rerouted along the C line between West Fourth Street and 59th Street, due to the incident, according to the MTA. By about 11:30 a.m., regular service had resumed with delays.
