Woman punched in face, robbed of purse in Herald Square subway station
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New video has been released of a man wanted for attacking a young woman in the subway station just hours after a man was fatally stabbed in a subway car.
A 23-year old woman was in the Herald Square subway station Monday morning when a man punched her in the face, put her in a headlock and stole her purse.
Concerns of safety within the subway system continue to grow as attacks become more frequent.
The woman was standing on the northbound D train platform when the incident occurred, according to police reports.
Police released surveillance video of the man they are looking for in connection to the attack.
The woman was taken to Lenox Hill HealthPlex in Greenwich Village.
It's among the latest in a series of violent crimes in the subway system in recent days, and Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday tried to reassure New Yorkers that the overall trend in subway crime is down.
"These individual incidents are very troubling," he said. "I understand they do give people pause, and our job has to be, constantly, to get out there, show presence, reassure people through action."
The MTA reports transit crimes are up 140% over the same week last year.
MTA Acting Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said the transit authority will do everything it can to help the NYPD patrol the system.
"In a conversation with me today, NYPD Commissioner (Dermot) Shea confirmed his commitment to high visibility policing in the transit system, including on trains and subway platforms," Lieber said. "We will continue to assist the NYPD to do everything we can, including cameras in every station, to help keep customers safe."
These incidents, he said, "are not reflective of an overall pattern of reduced subway crime that is at a 25-year low."
Police are still searching for the subject, who was seen wearing all blue when he fled the scene up to the street.
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The robbery happened one day after a man was stabbed to death shortly after midnight Sunday on a northbound 2 train at nearby Penn Station.
In that case, the assailant stabbed 32-year-old Akeem Loney in the neck in a seemingly unprovoked attack.
Loney was an avid soccer player and homeless.
He was sleeping on the 2 train when it pulled into the station and the suspect stabbed him in the neck.
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"You're just riding the subway and then you wake up and you're getting stabbed in the neck," said Reed Fox, Loney's soccer coach. "It's impossible to imagine, and I've just been sick to my stomach for the last 24 hours thinking about it."
The suspect then fled through the station and remains at large.
Anyone with information in either of these incidents is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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