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Man's Face Partially Paralyzed After Random East Village Slashing
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 19, 2016
Modified Jan 19, 2016
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 19, 2016
Modified Jan 19, 2016
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A man was randomly slashed in the face while walking in East Village on Saturday afternoon. The victim said his attacker threw him against a wall and said, "F--- off! I’m sick of this s--t!"
According to the NYPD, the incident occurred around 4:30 p.m. on January 16th: "The victim was assaulted by an unknown male as he walked on East 6 Street. The male knocked the victim to the ground and cut him with an unknown object. The victim suffered a large laceration to the right side of his face and a small laceration to his back."
The victim, Anthony Christopher-Smith, needed 150 stitches for the six-inch cut along the right side of his jaw. He told WCBS 2, "I had my earbuds on. I wasn’t listening. I was playing on my phone and walking ahead... And someone - probably from behind - just shoved me against the wall, and cursed, and you know, I kind of fall to the ground. I’m looking up to see who it was. It looked like an Asian gentleman. He looked like he had a razor or something in his hand, and then he just went off. He didn’t even really run. And as I got up, I realized I was bleeding all over."
Smith described the slasher as being "deranged." He added, "I couldn't call 911 because there was so much blood everywhere. My hands were covered, my phone was covered."
Police describe the suspect as an Asian male, 20-30 years old, 5'6" and 150 pounds, wearing a black waist length jacket, black skull cap, black pants and brown boots.
Now Smith's face is partially paralyzed. The social worker who lives in Newark said that doctors "say I'll be able to smile again fully in six to nine months. So I'm hopeful for that. I won't be able to feel my lower right ear lobe but that is a small price to pay."
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are kept strictly confidential.
Earlier this month, a woman walking in Chelsea was randomly cut in the face while in December, a student was slashed while walking to school. In November, writer David Henry Hwang was slashed in the neck in a seemingly random attack while walking in Fort Greene.
Tagged
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east village
slashing
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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