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Teen Stabbed 11 Times Near Her Queens Home, Attacker Still At Large
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 30, 2013
Modified Jul 30, 2013
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 30, 2013
Modified Jul 30, 2013
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A 17-year-old girl was nearly killed by a man who approached her from behind on 85th Street in Woodhaven, Queens last night and stabbed her nearly a dozen times. Natasha Martinez was almost home from her job at an Ozone Park McDonald's around 11:30 p.m. when she was brutally attacked, seemingly without warning or provocation. The assailant stabbed her multiple times in her back and torso. Hearing her daughter's screams, her mother rushed out of the house and the attacker fled.
Nothing was stolen and the motive remains a mystery. "She came home from work and her body was full of holes," Martinez's shaken mother tells the Daily News. “I was holding her because she was going to fall. Her face was turning white and I slapped her. I was telling her, ‘You have to stay alive.’ ”
Natasha was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where surgeons removed her spleen and took a vein from her leg and inserted it in her arm. (NBC New York reports that she lost a kidney.) “She’s in the hospital in really bad condition, you know,” her mother tells CBS 2. The NYPD says Natasha is now in stable condition.
Police say Natasha did not know the man who attacked her, and today NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters, “We don’t have an arrest and we don’t have a motive at this juncture." An official NYPD statement vaguely describes the suspect as a "male wearing a hooded sweatshirt." Investigators reportedly recovered a small knife at the scene, nothing else.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 27463 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
Tagged
natasha martinez
ozone park
queens
stabbing
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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