A man was slashed in the face by a mugger in a Lower Manhattan subway station around 4:30 a.m. today. According to the NYPD, the unnamed victim was on his way out of the Chambers Street A/C/E station at Vesey and Church when he was approached from behind by a man who demanded money.
When the victim refused, the mugger slashed him across the face with an unknown object, according to an NYPD spokesperson. The assailant ran away, and remains at large. The NYPD says the victim was not hospitalized. (CBS 2 reports that he was on his way to work and called 911 from his workplace.)
The NYPD has not yet released a description of the suspect, describing him only as a black male.
As of this week, there have been 988 slashings and stabbings in NYC in 2016, compared to 817 reported during the same period last year. The NYPD maintains that an increase in slashings is not part of a trend, but last month announced that officers would be dispatched to make routine checks of subway trains as they're stopped in stations, in an attempt to reduce the number of subway slashing incidents. The department also announced the launch of a broader anti-slashing initiative called "Operation Cutting Edge."
