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Tourist Stabbed In The Head With Steak Knife In Midtown
By
Gaby Del Valle
Published Dec 19, 2016
Modified Dec 19, 2016
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By
Gaby Del Valle
Published Dec 19, 2016
Modified Dec 19, 2016
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A tourist who was celebrating his recent engagement in the city was stabbed in the head with a steak knife early Sunday morning in Midtown, police said.
The attack, first reported by the Daily News, happened around 1:45 a.m. near the intersection of 46th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue.
Connor Rasmussen, a 23-year-old tourist who traveled to the city to propose to his girlfriend, was walking with three friends in search of pizza when the attack occurred. An NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that Rasmussen noticed his attacker walking behind him and told his friends to wait, at which point he was stabbed. The assailant also tried to punch one of the victim's friends, a woman, who received a scratch on her face.
"It was just some random dude," Rasmussen's friend Ryan Asher told the News. "He didn't even reach for my friend's purse. He took off the second he stabbed him. I don't think it was a robbery attempt"
The attacker allegedly plunged the knife into the base of Rasmussen's skull, near his neck. Rasmussen later removed the knife and reported the incident to police. At Bellevue Hospital, he was found to not have sustained any serious injuries.
"He got stitches," Rasmussen's grandmother Linda Colon told the News. "It was a two-inch gash. If it would have been two inches or an inch on either side, from what the doctors said, it would have killed him." Police told Gothamist Rasmussen has already returned to Washington.
Police described the attacker as a man in his 30s. He was last seen wearing a black skullcap with a white stripe on it.
The stabbing is the third violent attack to have occurred in Midtown over the weekend. Early Saturday morning, a man allegedly shot and killed a homeless man near Bryant Park. On Sunday, two men were stabbed in front of the Madame Tussauds on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.
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