‘Nobody Helped Me’: Sunset Park Worker’s Pleas Ignored By Straphangers After Subway Stabbing

Donny Levit -
Stabbing victim Efrain Guaman. (Via family handout)

A 33-year-old Queens man traveling to his job in Sunset Park sustained a 2-inch deep wound in his stomach after being stabbed and robbed of his cell phone while riding the N train last week.

According to a report by the New York Post, the incident took place Friday, May 20 at approximately 11:30am, at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays station stop. The victim said the suspect yelled, “Give me your phone or I’ll stab you!”

Efrain Guaman, a single parent, was headed from his home in Elmhurst, Queens to Sunset Park, where he has worked at his uncle’s store for about a decade.

According to the victim, after the suspect stabbed him and fled with his phone, he was able to pull the emergency lever on the subway train to keep it in the station. “It took 30 minutes for emergency to come. I couldn’t think of anything. I just felt the pain,” said Guaman.

Guaman told the Post that fellow subway riders did not come to his aid during the incident.

“I asked for help. They all ran because they were scared,” he said.

Guaman was taken to Methodist Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery and was unable to breath on his own. He is expected to remain there for at least a week.

Police are still searching for the suspect, who they describe as male, approximately 5 feet 5 inches, having a thin build, and a neck tattoo. The suspect’s hair is described as being either in braids or a twist.

According to the latest NYPD stats, there have been 30 knife attacks – inclusive of slashings and stabbings — which have taken place in the city’s transit system this year as of May 15.

Atlantic Avenue-Barclays station is the second busiest subway stop in Brooklyn.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting your tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Police say all calls are confidential.