A woman who was stabbed at a subway station in Queens was helped by two men who held the assailant down while waiting for the police to arrive, a scene caught on video by a bystander.
The incident occurred at the Jamaica-Van Wyck subway station around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday when the suspect asked 23-year-old Eileen Li for money, officers reported. An argument erupted, during which he stabbed her multiple times in the torso, leaving her with a punctured liver and lung, and slashed her face, according to police.
After the stabbing, Alexander Robles and Josnan Palacios intervened and held Randol Cóntreras, 24, until police arrived. A video shows the two men holding him down inside the station in Kew Gardens.
Robles and Palacios told CBS News they were both at the station when they heard a woman screaming and jumped into action. They spoke to reporters in Spanish.
“We did what we could,” Robles said. “I don’t think I’m a hero. I’m genuinely concerned for her and her health. I just want to tell her that thankfully she is recovering, and hopefully there are more people out there that would do good deeds.”
“Seeing such an attack, I just couldn’t stay still as he stabbed the woman,” Palacios said.
The city recently reported that subway crime has declined overall, saying it is down nearly 8% overall this year compared to the first six months of 2023, and is 11% lower overall than subway crime in 2019, before the COVID pandemic. In a public statement last week, Mayor Eric Adams said that other than during the pandemic, “our transit system is the safest it’s been in 14 years, with the lowest number of robberies in recorded history.”
Despite this alleged trend of decreased crime in the subway, NYC recently introduced scanners to detect weapons at select, but undisclosed, stations as part of a 30-day pilot program. If it is successful, the systems will be installed at major subway stations on a citywide scale.
Adams said the program “is about preventing mass casualty incidents,” when it was deployed on Friday. “I think it’s a game-changer for the transportation system across the globe,” he said.
Since Sunday’s incident, Cóntreras has been charged with attempted murder, menacing, assault, attempted robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.
Li was taken to the nearby Jamaica hospital and is currently recovering in critical condition.
