The victim, 43-year-old Tommy Bailey, was a union steamfitter and father of three. He was also a star baseball player in high school.
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"We just gotta do better. It's sad. It's looking like we're back in 1980. I don't know what to say," Bailey's brother Kurt Mayers said.
Mayers says Bailey is a hero for what he did on the Brooklyn bound L train last Friday.
The incident happened onboard a southbound L train around 9 p.m.
Police sources told Eyewitness News, Bailey saw the suspect disrespect a police officer on the train station platform.
They say Bailey then approached the suspect and told him to stop being disrespectful to the officer.
That sparked a verbal dispute on the platform, which spilled onto the train and got physical.
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Police sources say the suspect took out a knife and slashed Bailey across the neck, before making his escape.
"Not everyone has the option to jump into a $50 Uber. We owe it to all New Yorkers for the subways and mass transit to be safe and to feel safe. We gotta make it that way," MTA chairman Janno Lieber said.
Lieber paid his respects at Bailey's wake.
Bailey is one of three people murdered in transit in the past 10 days, and he's one of eight this year alone.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made crime his highest priority, and while murders are down citywide, they are still up in the transit system.
"The number of subway crimes is relatively low but because everybody has to use mass transit it has such a huge impact on everyone's sense of safety in the city," Lieber said. "Everyone puts themselves in the position of somebody who gets attacked. Because it's very personal you see yourself in that situation we have to make it safer on the statistics but also feel safer. I'm counting on the NYPD to get that done."
The NYPD already surged resources into the transit system.
Last week, they announced plans for 700 new recruits to flood into high impact areas above and below ground to increase their visibility as the holiday season draws near.
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