A heroic Upper East Side doorman was slashed just inches from his jugular vein while saving a wheelchair-bound resident from an unhinged mugger.
Brian Smith was helping the disabled tenant enter The Fontaine building on East 72nd Street just after 3 a.m. Sunday.
Unbeknownst to either man, a thug dressed in a black sweatshirt, hat, and facemask had been following the tenant back from an ATM near First Avenue, according to people who saw surveillance footage.
The man asked Smith for directions to the subway.
The doorman answered — and was then sliced from nose to cheek.
“I was violated,” a still-healing Smith, 58, told The Post on Friday. “I have no justification for this.”
Smith retreated to the security desk and called 911.
Police responded, along with building superintendent Pedro Ramos.
“I’ve never seen so much blood in my life,” Ramos said.
Smith was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he needed more than 20 stitches to close the nine-inch gash.
“They had to sew an artery back together,” Smith said.
The unidentified intended victim did not return messages seeking comment.
Residents of the co-op were still shaken days after the attack.
“Imagine what would’ve happened if he wasn’t there?” said one tenant of the 35-story building who asked to remain anonymous.
“Brian’s like a teddy bear,” her husband said.
The doorman had recently battled cancer.
The couple said residents are raising money to help Smith through his recovery and time out of work.
“Everyone is even more sad because it’s him,” the wife added.
A doorman for two decades, Smith recently returned to work after a battle with cancer and the loss of his father.
He said he is now seeking psychological help because of the attack.
A spokesperson for the doormen union, 32BJ SEIU, said it is working to help Smith through his recovery.
“Doormen are on the frontlines of keeping buildings safe and secure,” the spokesperson said. “This is an unfortunate example of their sacrifices.”
Residents are pushing to have the front doors locked after 10 p.m.
Nearby doormen agree — and now are especially on guard.
“Now we got to be vigilant,” said one doorman at The Fontaine. “New York City is getting so bad. We got to be alert.”
“We need to be like two eyes in the front, two eyes in the back,” said Franklin De Los Santos, a doorman of a nearby building.
John Battle, another East 72nd Street doorman, blamed catch-and-release policies pushed by soft-on-crime District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“There’s no justice any longer,” said Battle. “They arrest them and turn them loose the next day.”
The attack was one of five slashings and stabbings in Manhattan last week, as knife violence and arrests skyrocket.
Felony assaults in the 19th Precinct, which covers the Upper East Side, are up 18 percent for the year, with 24 last month alone — double the number in 2022.
No arrests have been made by the NYPD, which is still investigating.
