Monday 8 August 2022 04:34 PM NYPD hunt thug who stabbed a man at Yankee Stadium subway as violent crime on ... trends now
An unhinged thug stabbed a gay man in the back at the Yankee Stadium subway stop in New York City in what the victim believes was a hate crime as violence surges more than 55 percent compared to last year.
The victim Leo Frasier, 33, said that he was returning from work to his Bronx home and headed up the escalator to transfer trains when the shirtless man, who appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s leaned into him.
The assailant, whose pants were falling down with his underwear hanging out, was bent over in front of Frasier at first but then straightened up and turned to confront him.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Frasier said: 'He leaned into my personal space, saying he wanted to make sure that I didn't take a picture of him.
'Here he was homophobic and I was, like, I didn't take a photo of you. It was hot, I was tired and I was, like, I'm not the one.'
Frasier said to deter the man, he gestured that he had a weapon in his pocket.
Leo Frasier, 33, said that he was attacked because his assailant thought he was gay
Here is the unhinged assailant fleeing the subway station near Yankee Stadium after attacking a gay man
The attacker, pictured here, stabbed Leo Frasier, 33, in the Yankee Stadium subway station, puncturing his lung
The NYPD's Transit District 11 is located in the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium stop where the attack took place
The man went to the top of the escalator and ducked off to the left and waited for his victim to come off.
As Frasier walked to his connection on the four train, he caught a reflection of the attacker coming at him from behind.
Frasier ducked and swung his bag around at the young man and caught him in the neck.
That's when he felt the piercing pain of the stabbing on the left side of his back.
'Someone yelled, 'He's bleeding,' Frasier said. 'There was so much blood. I heard a cracking sound and the doctors said that was my lung being punctured.'
Frasier told DailyMail.com that he believes that his attacker knew that he is gay and that's why he was targeted.
'Even if I don't parade my homosexuality, he assumed that I am gay,' he said in an interview from his hospital bed.
'The doctors said that if I was standing upright, I would have died. That's what pisses me off,' he said.
Now, Frasier, who turns 34 tomorrow, will be spending his birthday in the hospital as doctors evaluate his progress.
'My boyfriend and I were going to do something,' he said. 'But now I'm going to be here.'
Surveillance video caught the attacker fleeing down the escalator and through the subway station without his shirt on, wearing shorts and sneakers with black socks.
No arrests have been made, according to cops.
Frasier said that he would like to see more cops better deployed through out the subway system.
'I do appreciate that they wanted to put more cops in the train station. If they had more cops, this probably wouldn't happen,' he said.
The NYPD's Transit District 11 is located in that subway station, but Frasier said that the cops were usually only around the precinct office.
The attack comes as the city sees crime spiking a whopping 57 percent on the subways in July across the five boroughs since last year.
Prior to her death, Go (pictured) was an executive manager at Deloitte Consulting, according to her LinkedIn. Her death shocked New York City residents and prosecutors from the District Attorney's office previously claimed that Simon was motivated by racial bias against Go, who was Asian American
Murders and shootings have decreased slightly in the hot summer in the Big Apple, but felony assault, like the kind Frazier said he experienced, jumped 19 percent. Rapes are up nearly 11 percent, robbery, which involves violence or the threat of violence, rose an eye-popping 39.4 percent.
Overall, New York City crime surged 36.7 percent, according to the NYPD.
Sometimes the victims are barely in their teens.
On July 9,14-year-old Ethan Reyes was stabbed to death in Harlem at the 137th Street - City College subway stop by a 15-year-old from a rival gang.
The New York Times reported that fear has gripped the subway system after a reporter rode the A train, the city's longest line, for a day.
'I don’t feel safe on the trains,” Jo-Ann Jones, of Harlem told the paper. “I’m afraid to go out after 8 o’clock.
Ridership on the city's subways has dropped 56.2 percent on the weekdays.
Nina Rothchild, 58, spoke out for the first time since she was pushed down a flight of stairs and hit in the head 13 times with a hammer at a subway station in Queens, New York, in February
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD lieutenant, made cleaning up crime a central part of his administration's platform.
He's promised to deploy more police in the stations, but so far it has not proven effective.
Adams has placed the blame on the crime wave on the 2019 criminal justice reform, that prohibited bail for misdemeanors and some felony crimes.
He has pressed lawmakers in Albany and Gov. Kathey Hochul to change the law to give judges the discretion to withhold bail if the defendant could be a danger to the community.
So far, lawmakers have ignored his request.
From the beginning of the year, the New York City subway has seen some shocking, brutal and senseless crimes.
January saw one of the biggest increase, nearly doubling the year before, with 198 crimes reported compared to 113 in the first month last year.
That was the month when Deloitte analyst Michelle Go was pushed to her death under a Times Square train by a homeless man with a history of mental illness.
The suspect Martial Simon, 61, also had a violent criminal history. He served two years for robbing taxi drivers at gunpoint.
A defiant Frank Abrokwa, 37, is pictured showing a rude hand gesture as he is led into Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday for violating the conditions of his release
After the killing, the newly inaugurated Mayor Eric Adams made safety in the subway system a top priority, holding a press conference in the Times Square station in February. He promised that he would beckon riders back and clear out homeless people using the commuter system for shelter.
Days after his announcement, six people were stabbed in the system, and a city Health Department scientist Nina Rothschild, 58, was pushed down the stairs in a Queens subway station and beaten 13 times in the head with a hammer.
Career criminal William Blount, 57, was arrested for the attack on Rothschild after he was found with the city worker's credit cards and NYC ID. He was charged with attempted murder, robbery and assault.
Rothschild suffered a skull fracture in the attack, but was expected to recover.
Also in February, a man upset that his sexual advances had been rebuffed on a Bronx subway platform, defecated in a plastic bag then smeared it on the head and face of the woman he had hit on.
Frank Abrokwa, 37, got away from the scene of that disgusting crime, but he was nabbed later for throwing a dumbbell through the window of a storage facility where he kept his belongings.
It also came to light that Abrokwa had
