"I was just walking down the stairs looking at my phone and as soon as I got up, I got a random punch," Suwandi said.
The 29-year-old sushi chef says he blacked out for about a minute.
"When I woke up, so many things going on. There was a lot of people around me. The police, the ambulance, just keep asking me questions like 'what happened, what happened? What's going on?' and it's crazy," he said.
Suwandi was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital.
"He hit me in my lips. The stitch is still here. It's crazy," he adds.
Suwandi also had a swollen face and a sore jaw. He was riding the 7 train, heading home from work in Manhattan to Woodside, Queens. He had just gotten out of the 61st Street Woodside Station when he was slugged.
Police are piecing together clues from witnesses, only describing the suspect as a man, running away in a pink jacket and black jeans.
Suwandi is questioning his motive.
"I honestly have no idea, but looking at the news with the crime wave against Asian and Jewish people, I think that might be the background of the attack," he said.
The brazen attack happened on a bustling street in broad daylight around 4 p.m. on Friday, leaving many riders like Adonis Santos and his pregnant wife Jennifer, also of Woodside Queens on edge,
"It just feels like it's getting worse and worse and nobody is doing anything about it. That's the thing that makes us New Yorkers upset," she said.
Suwandi will be out of work for a week to recover and he hasn't been back to the subway station.
When asked if he will ride the train again, he replied saying he is not ready.
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