8th Avenue and 43rd Street in Times Square is full of foot traffic and police at all hours and is statistically very safe. The seemingly random attack on a tourist was caught on video on Saturday around 6 p.m. - it shows the victim doing nothing at all to provoke it.
The video shows a man sitting in front of the store in a walker. An employee says the man just bought cigarettes.
"He's like normal, smoking a cigarette - when I see him, the girl's coming from the gift shop. He had like big knife," said Anwar Yahia.
Yahia says he can't imagine what was going through the mind of the regular customer that he would do something so violent on such a busy street out of the blue.
"After he stabbed the lady, he sit down to the chair, nothing happened - everybody walked close to him, he didn't do nothing," added Yahia.
The tourists are seen walking away looking bewildered. Police say the stab victim was taken to the hospital and treated for a wound to the chest.
Cyril Destin, 61, was quickly arrested and charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
"I was scared because he comes to the store to buy cigarettes, and after that, they lock him up," Yahia said.
Destin has been arrested more than a dozen times before. He lives in a building nearby that includes supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals.
Destin is due in court on Sunday night.
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